Sycamore City Council to meet at Streamwood Fire Station in July

SYCAMORE – A Sycamore City Council meeting will take place outside of the city in July in an effort to help alderpersons visualize what a new fire station could look like, officials said.

During Monday’s Sycamore City Council meeting, City Manager Michael Hall said he’s seeking to hold a Special City Council meeting July 27 in Streamwood, a western suburb of Chicago about 30 miles east of Sycamore. The meeting will commence at 9 a.m. inside Streamwood Fire Station No. 31, 1204 S. Park Ave, in Streamwood.

Hall said the public is invited and City Clerk Mary Kalk will be there to take minutes, but no decisions or policy votes will be made during the special meeting. He said he intends for the meeting to be a workshop, where council members will be able to visualize what a new Sycamore Fire Station No. 1 could look like because they’ll be meeting in a building designed by FGM Architects, the firm Sycamore has hired to design a new fire station.

“I think it’s to help everybody understand why the money is what it is, and look at the space there, and to understand what is it that you’re actually purchasing,” Hall said. “At lot of times it’s hard to visualize and conceptualize the space related to the money that you’re spending for it and what it is per square foot.”.

The total project budget for a new Sycamore fire station is estimated at just under $10.5 million, according to city documents. The two proposed building additions, such as an expanded community room and regional emergency operations center, which city officials have commonly called EOC, and a historical museum entryway could add an additional $1.7 million.

The center, which could accommodate about 70 people with adjacent lobby space for training purposes, could cost an estimated $800,000. The expanded building entry designed to feature Sycamore Fire Department’s refurbished 1923 Stutz fire engine is estimated to cost $900,000, according to city documents.

If both additions are included in the scope of the new fire station, the total cost is estimated to be between $12.1 and $12.7 million, Sycamore officials said.

With no air conditioning in the living quarters and a 66-year-old boiler that has gone down at least twice in recent memory, Sycamore officials have debated the need for a new Sycamore Fire Station No. 1 since 2023. Earlier in May, the new Sycamore Fire Station No. 1 project moved one step closer to reality after Sycamore City Council unanimously approved an agreement with FGM Architects for the next phase of development.

On May 15, Sycamore Fire Chief Bart Gilmore said a new building would be designed with the health and safety of firefighters in mind.

“The building is designed to protect firefighters from carcinogens,” Gilmore said. “The gear is stored in a different way. It’s kind of one of those things you have to see.”