The Kane County Administration Committee on Oct. 15 approved the list of capital projects submitted to finance and discussed additional repairs at the county Elgin health building and associated parking work.
Kevin Harris, building manager, said "the 250,000 is for court service renovation of the space to get them in there. I will tell you that the lease, I believe for court services in Elgin is about $70,000." Harris told the committee the county is preparing the Elgin building for occupancy by the health department and other tenants and that parking, ADA access and resurfacing costs had grown during the fit‑out process.
Committee members raised concerns that the proposed increase from $1,000,000 to $1,200,000, mainly to mill and resurface the parking lot instead of only seal‑coating it, would shift costs onto the county when multiple tenants (health department, clerk, court services) will use the lot. One committee member said they preferred to stripe and occupy the building rather than spend more now on resurfacing.
Staff described project accounting: heating and air conditioning work for the Elgin building was paid by ARPA; a new roof and other repairs had been completed; the $1,000,000 figure in the packet accounted for several items, and the proposed $200,000 increase reflected contractor recommendations to mill and resurface the lot rather than seal it.
The amendment to raise the Elgin building repair line item to $1.2 million was proposed by staff but no member motioned and seconded the amendment during the meeting; committee members signaled they would not support the increase without additional allocation or guarantees of cost sharing. The committee proceeded to approve the overall capital projects list as submitted to finance. The committee also asked staff to provide a written list of unanticipated Elgin building costs and to return with any allocation proposals from the health department or other tenants before approving added capital.