Lifetime Citizen Portal Access — AI Briefings, Alerts & Unlimited Follows
Staff recommend construction manager and outline funding options for Public Service Center and fire station project
Loading...
Summary
City staff presented a needs assessment and recommended selecting Camosy Construction as construction manager for the Public Service Center and Half Day Road fire station project. Finance staff reviewed reserves, debt policies and pension contributions (currently $9.5M annually); staff will return with detailed financing at the May 18 workshop.
City of Highland Park staff on March 30, 2026 recommended hiring Camosy Construction as the construction manager for a proposed Public Service Center and fire station redevelopment and presented program needs, site constraints and funding scenarios.
City Manager Newford said a core project team prepared an RFQ/RFP and recommended the competitive selection of Camosy Construction. Staff described two project sites off Half Day Road totaling about 8.3 acres; buildings on those sites are aging and located near flood plain/floodway areas, which raises stormwater mitigation and compensatory storage needs. Newford noted an agreement with the Park District that would allow stormwater management on district property and staff preliminarily recommended increasing compensatory storage capacity by about 10%.
Director Bannon summarized the needs assessment done with Williams Architects, including staff counts (public works ~90 employees; fire station staff typically 4–6) and operational deficits such as insufficient vehicle storage and shop space. "We have some challenges," Bannon said, citing vehicle degradation from outside storage and safety concerns in the maintenance garage.
Finance presenter Christie reviewed debt policy and fund-balance history. Christie said Highland Park — as a home-rule unit — has no statutory debt cap and described the city's long-term-debt practice of limiting maturities to the useful life of financed assets. Staff noted $17.5M currently programmed in 2027 for the project in the 10-year capital plan and explained policy on the strategic use of reserves for planned capital. Christie said the city has been making $9.5 million annual contributions to police and fire pensions since 2023 to move toward the actuary's target funding trajectory; Christie and other staff cited current funding levels near 55% for police and 62% for fire (2024 actuary figures).
On financing, staff modeled debt scenarios for a hypothetical $40M issuance and showed that shorter terms require larger short‑term property‑tax increases; the city has used 30‑year debt in the past to blunt annual property‑tax impacts on large water‑plant projects. Staff also described revenue options, including the city's ability as a home-rule unit to increase sales tax in quarter-percent increments; staff estimated a 0.5% sales-tax increase would raise roughly $2M annually and noted Placer AI data indicating most sales in the Route 41 corridor come from nonresidents, potentially reducing the local resident burden for a sales‑tax-funded project.
Council members asked questions about pension pressures, reserve drawdown and the timing of planned debt. Newford and Christie committed to presenting more detailed financial analyses and trade-offs at the May 18 workshop.
Next steps: staff will advance the procurement/selection paperwork for the recommended construction manager, refine the project budget and financing scenarios, and present a fuller financial report and policy options at the May 18 budget workshop.
