Burr Ridge Officials Clash Over Village Hall

BURR RIDGE, IL – Most of the Burr Ridge Village Board this week favored building a new Village Hall.

But one member questioned why the village let the existing building deteriorate. The mayor countered that such a suggestion was an "affront."

Village Administrator Evan Walter said the existing 40-year-old building needs $6 million in work. The village, he said, had $4.8 million in its accounts to help pay for it.

He said he wouldn't recommend this option.

Instead, Walter pushed spending up to $10.5 million for a new Village Hall near the Starbucks at the Village Center shopping complex. He said the Village Center offered free land.

"I'm excited about getting free land on a developed site. That's not something that comes along too often," he said.

What makes the new building seem more possible, Walter said, is the $2 million that the village received from the state last year – it "fell out of the sky," as the mayor put it.

The money went to the village because a company with a Burr Ridge address hadn't paid sales taxes locally.

The village also hopes to use money from a 1 percent sales tax in the business district that consists of the Village Center, County Line Square and the Marriott.

A few years ago, the village imposed the tax to benefit the district itself with buildings, roads, utilities, demolition of buildings and renovations of existing ones.

Some of Burr Ridge's water department income could also go toward the project because the department would use the building, Walter said.

Trustees generally seemed supportive of the new Village Hall. But Trustee Russell Smith was an exception.

He said a homeowner would be doing a bad job if he did not keep up his property. But he said that's what the village had done with Village Hall. He wondered whether the village would fail to properly maintain a new Village Hall.

"I would think our residents would have a big issue with that," Smith said.

"Big issue with what?" Mayor Gary Grasso asked.

"The way we manage our buildings," Smith responded.

Grasso said the city has prioritized other projects such as fixing water mains.

"We may have Band-Aided (Village Hall) day to day, year to year. You weren't here," Grasso told Smith. "There were other problems to solve, and I take a little affront because what you're saying is that past mayors ... somehow allowed this building to deteriorate and didn't take care of the other problems. We took care of the other problems."

Smith said the village needed to give more specific numbers on what it would take to fix the building.

"I think we need to kind of scratch below the surface," he said.

Trustee Guy Franzese said he appreciated Smith's comments about the cost estimates, saying he, too, wanted more detail.

He also defended the village, saying it placed other items as priorities such as water mains and roadwork.

As for the cost of the new building, Franzese said it was high, working out to $800 a square foot.

"That's a palace that's gold-plated everything," he said. "That number needs to come way down."

Grasso said the number was higher than what the village thinks it would cost. He said it was best to start out high and then come down.

"A decision has to be made, but I don't think it's a very hard decision," he said.

He added that future boards should commit to maintain the building.

The board made no decisions at the meeting.