Villa Park awards contracts for Iowa Community Center temporary fire station and Station 81 renovations

The Village Board of Trustees on July 23 approved multiple resolutions authorizing work related to converting the Iowa Community Center into a temporary fire station and renovating Fire Station 81.

Resolutions approved included: a contract with Hussar Abatement Ltd. of Franklin Park in the amount of $86,000 for asbestos abatement at the Iowa Community Center (agenda item 13b); a contract with Midwest Environmental Consulting Services for project management and air-quality monitoring for $23,000 (agenda item 13c); and a construction contract with Light Construction Inc. of Montgomery in the amount of $1,603,700 for the combined Iowa Community Center temporary fire station work and improvements to Fire Station 81 (agenda item 13d).

Parks and Recreation Superintendent Brian Roche introduced elements of the project; Chief Steve Stapleton provided most operational details and answered trustee questions. Stapleton said the combined bid package produced a lower overall price and explained that Station 81’s deferred maintenance had grown from an initial estimate (roughly $1,000,000 for Station 81 alone in earlier estimates) to a combined package of about $1.6 million when work at the Iowa Community Center was included. He estimated the Iowa Community Center work would cost roughly $665,000 and said converting that space to a temporary station would likely require about $400,000 of that amount for bay floor work, garage doors, ventilation and other items needed for fire apparatus and code compliance.

Trustees asked for a clearer breakout of costs between the permanent Station 81 work and temporary Iowa Community Center modifications; staff said a detailed breakout would be provided. Stapleton said the construction schedule envisions moving fire operations into the temporary station once abatement and initial modifications are complete, then returning personnel to Station 81 after renovation; the board was given a conservative completion target of April (date stated in discussion). Stapleton also described automatic mutual-aid arrangements with surrounding departments (York Center, Lombard, Elmhurst, Addison) to cover calls south of the railroad tracks while the station moves are occur.

All three contract resolutions passed on roll-call votes. Trustees requested additional cost breakout details and staff said the asbestos abatement, monitoring and construction contracts were being coordinated to maximize pricing and satisfy code requirements.