Will County facilities director outlines safety upgrades, asset tagging and maintenance work

Will County’s facilities director reported a string of building-maintenance and safety projects to the Capital Improvements Committee on Feb. 4, including new beds at Sunny Hill, installation of filtered bottle fillers, a new work-order system and countywide life‑safety door numbering designed to speed first-responder access.

The director said the county is placing new beds at Sunny Hill in groups of four to avoid disrupting the facility and is repurposing 56 older beds; staff are shipping the serviceable units to other jurisdictions, and the director said only beds “that are in perfect condition” are being repurposed. The director also described replacing some decorative fountains with single bottle-fill stations and demonstrated a counter on the filler that signals when filters approach end-of-life. "There's a little counter on there, and as the filter ... it gives me a little red light. A yellow 1 then a red 1," the director said during the meeting.

On maintenance tracking, the director told the committee Will County replaced its Hippo work-order system after an acquisition and now uses Aptura; employees will receive logins to submit work orders and staff will still respond immediately to urgent calls but require a work order to record materials, supplies and labor hours. The director said January saw "a little over 1,500" work orders submitted and that the new system has asset tags so equipment such as boilers now have unique names and numbers to track recurring problems and maintenance history.

The committee heard about a life-safety program led by a newly hired life-safety specialist that numbers exterior egress doors to mirror the national numbering system used by NIMS and local emergency services. The director said the system places door numbers on the building perimeter — not interior office or conference doors — to help first responders locate an entrance quickly during an emergency. Several committee members asked about numbering at county-owned parcels with limited development, such as the old courthouse site; the director said county-owned parcels would be considered and that staff would look into costs for placing signage on simple open parcels.

Committee members asked about ongoing work at the old courthouse plaza and the courthouse exterior. Staff said they will prepare a scope for sidewalk repairs this spring and put an RFP together in coordination with the county executive. The director described an annual stainless-steel polishing program that had been deferred and is now being resumed on a rolling schedule; he said the chemical polish used off-hours produces strong fumes and costs were not available at the meeting. On a related structural concern, staff said scaffolding remains at the courthouse while three materials specialists analyze damaged stone. "We have 3 material specialists on-site ... doing their analysis. And until we get a report, I'd wanna speculate on what happened or what the cost would be," the director said, and staff cautioned no cost estimate is available until the investigation is complete.

Committee members also asked about firefighting agents used in county training. The director said the county uses dry chemical extinguishers and does not use foam containing PFAS for general‑purpose training; he said airport firefighting remains an exception in other jurisdictions.

The director closed with a brief note that staff will communicate new door numbers and the replacement of the work-order system to county employees and that the facilities team will continue quarterly or as‑needed polishing and maintenance where funding allows. The presentation concluded after a slide summary of equipment replacements and work-order statistics.

Ending: The committee took no formal vote on any of the maintenance items reported; staff said the sidewalk RFP, the courthouse stone investigation and other repair budgets would be brought back to the executive office or board with cost estimates after further study.