Elmhurst Hikes Tax To Help Pay For Police Station

ELMHURST, IL – Elmhurst aldermen on Monday approved an increase in the hotel tax by 1 percentage point as part of the plan to pay for a new police station.

The tax is estimated to raise $2.5 million for the $48 million station.

The City Council's action was no surprise. Aldermen were carrying out their plan from a year ago to pay for demolishing and rebuilding the police station.

Other measures include hiking property taxes, selling a city building and taking advantage of debt that is rolling off the city's books.

Aldermen had concluded that it wasn't worth renovating the 36-year-old building.

In the fall, the council hired an architectural firm to design the new structure.

The council's first meeting of the year lasted 12 minutes. About half of it was for a ceremony honoring members of the Elmhurst Bears cheerleaders, who won championship titles at a national competition in North Carolina.

Of the 14 aldermen, Jacob Hill, Guido Nardini and Jennifer Veremis were absent. Late last month, Patch reported on the annual absence rates for aldermen.