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Will County committee hears facilities condition assessment, consultants cite utility rebates and savings
Summary
Consultants and county facilities staff updated the Will County Capital Improvements Committee on a countywide facility condition assessment, an interactive asset dashboard and utility-funded services that McKinstry and partners say have identified six-figure cash value and ongoing energy savings.
Will County Capital Improvements Committee members heard a presentation on the county’s facility condition assessment and a related utility rebate program that consultants and staff said has found six-figure value and identified projects to reduce operating costs.
The update, presented by a McKinstry consultant and county facilities staff, summarized work begun in 2023 to inventory and score major building assets, introduce preventive-maintenance schedules and pursue utility-sponsored monitoring and commissioning that McKinstry said produced direct paid services from ComEd and additional incentive checks from gas utilities.
The report matters because it is intended to give the county a data-driven basis for maintenance and capital-budget decisions. Committee members were shown an interactive, web-based dashboard that maps building-level asset condition and replacement-cost projections across a 30-year horizon to help space- and capital-planning discussions.
Presenters described three main results of the engagement so far: (1) a county-owned interactive facility dashboard that is updated quarterly; (2) energy- and equipment-focused opportunities identified during on-site assessments; and (3) utility-funded services that reduced up-front county capital needs.
"A hundred and $25,000 was paid from ComEd directly to McKinstry to institute this work," the McKinstry presenter said, describing ComEd paid services tied to monitoring-based commissioning. The presenter added that the county did not have to put capital forward to obtain those paid services. He also said a recent boiler replacement program produced a $9,000 incentive check from NICOR and an estimated near-term reduction in gas use at the affected facility of about 30 percent, subject to verification after the next winter heating season.
Committee members were shown the dashboard’s facility condition index (FCI), an engineering metric the presenter described as scored so that lower numbers indicate better condition. The presenter used the EMCO building as an example, saying the tool estimated more than $500,000 would be needed annually to keep that single building in fair or good operating condition and that the net present value to replace all assets in that building today exceeded $15 million.
The presenters emphasized that the dashboard is a living document: asset ages and replacement-cost estimates are updated quarterly, and the county retains ownership of the data. They also described a recent push to tag major equipment and adopt a preventive-maintenance schedule previously not followed as rigorously.
Beyond the dashboard, staff summarized other facility actions and projects described during the update: a recently tested automated vending/"automat" solution in the courthouse to supply sandwiches and coffee (installed at no contract cost to the county), design completion and an expected early-spring start for annex courtroom-to-office renovations with a stated contract value of $350,000, window and roof work planned for the Copperfield building after a Feb. 20 bid opening, life-safety upgrades including standardized door numbering for first responders, installation of first-aid cabinets and AEDs, and an in-house repiping project at the ADF facility that staff said saved about $40,000 versus outside bids.
Committee members asked procedural and technical questions about the score values and ongoing monitoring. The presenters said facilities staff meet weekly with McKinstry and the resource energy team, and quarterly updates keep the database current. The county’s facilities staff and consultants also said they provide engineering support to inform capital-planning recommendations.
Votes at a glance: At the meeting opening the committee approved the minutes of its previous meeting by roll call. Named affirmative responses recorded in the transcript included Balich, Brooks, Perez and Axley; the motion was announced as passed.
The committee did not take a capital-approval vote on new projects during the presentation; presenters said the assessment and dashboard are intended to support future budget requests and project prioritization.
