Kane County’s Administration Committee on Jan. 15 heard a detailed briefing on capital work at the county’s judicial campus and elsewhere and approved an updated list of capital projects and associated funding authorizations.

The projects, presented by Heidi Fildes, project manager for Building Management, and Roger Fonstock, Executive Director for IT and Building Management, center on the Third Street Courthouse campus and a schedule of improvements funded with a mix of capital funds and American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars.

Fildes said the program grew from 18 months of planning. “It’s taken 18 months of planning and engineering and identifying, what were the priorities are for, our capital improvement program,” she said. Major projects listed include replacement of two 40‑foot air‑cooled York chillers and demolition of the building’s older chiller plant and cooling tower; a five‑year pavement management program that will mill and resurface multiple parking lots; systemwide water‑quality improvements; fire system upgrades and campus‑wide communication connections; modernization of elevators and extensive lighting and security lighting work; and large HVAC replacements across multiple facilities.

Roger Fonstock described the committee item that authorized an updated capital project list as a transparency measure. “What we’ve been doing with projects is trying to provide, basically an authorization for the capital funds as a matter of transparency so that you know when a project’s initiated, when it’s in planning, when we’re executing, and then how it relates to the various funds that we use,” Fonstock said.

Several projects are explicitly ARPA‑funded in 2025. Fonstock and Fildes told the committee the county is replacing the domestic hot water system in the jail towers and beginning a roughly $12,000,000 project to insulate and replace HVAC in the adult justice center; they described kitchen and laundry equipment replacements and HVAC work in the shooting range and other buildings. The presentation also noted capital activity in 2024, including the county’s purchase of new election equipment charged to the capital fund.

The Third Street Courthouse received focused attention. The county will seek a planning and design study to determine whether to replace the courthouse’s aging single‑pane windows with modern thermal windows. Fonstock said the work goes beyond simple repair and requires architectural and historic‑preservation coordination; the committee approved a $54,500 agreement with White and Company to produce the design and specification package. Chief Judge Villa, who addressed the committee, described the courthouse as “one of the most important things in the county” and said courthouse users and staff had complained for years about failing windows, leaks and security and accessibility problems.

Fildes and Fonstock also described a new, publicly accessible capital‑projects web portal the county is preparing to publish. The portal will allow users to view individual projects, funding sources, schedules and the project manager’s contact information.

Committee members asked questions about project scheduling, in‑house versus contractor work for complex mechanical systems, and the staff capacity to manage a dense slate of concurrent projects. Fonstock said some major mechanical work (for example 400‑ton chillers) requires outside contractors and specialized technicians, while routine repairs are handled by county building engineers and maintenance staff. Fildes said commissioning and close coordination with contractors is under way and that the county aims to finish several time‑sensitive tasks before warm weather.

The committee approved the updated capital authorization list and several project‑specific agreements during the meeting (see “Votes at a glance” recap for the full list). Fonstock told committee members the spreadsheet of projects would be updated and returned periodically so the committee and the public can track project stage, fund source and expenditures.

The county said staff will schedule follow‑up briefings and provide a timeline for filling key building‑management vacancies so project oversight is not delayed.