Expanding Kendall County public safety center one of county’s goals

The Richard A. Randall Public Safety Center in Yorkville was built in 1991 when Kendall County had a population of about 40,000.

The facility houses the sheriff’s office and county jail, KenCom Public Safety Dispatch and the Kendall County Emergency Management Agency. With the county’s population now estimated at more than 142,000, the facility no longer meets the county’s needs.

“We have beyond outgrown it,“ Kendall County Administrator Christina Burns said in addressing state legislators during a legislative breakfast Jan. 21 at Oswego Village Hall. ”There are multiple employees sharing basically closets for offices, kind of constructing walls here and there. I would encourage you to take a tour of it if you haven’t already to see how critical it is for us to make some improvements to this facility in the coming years."

State Sen. Linda Holmes, D-Aurora; state Rep. Stephanie Kifowit, D-Oswego; and state Rep. Matt Hanson, D-Montgomery, attended the breakfast along with representatives from the offices of state Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris, and state Rep. Jed Davis, R-Yorkville.

Expanding and modernizing the facility is expected to cost $20 million, and Kendall County officials are seeking help from the state to pay for the project. Design work on the project is expected to begin this year.

Last year, the Kendall County Public Safety Center was renamed to honor former Kendall County sheriff Richard Randall. Randall was the Kendall County sheriff from 1986 to 2014 and is the longest-serving sheriff in Kendall County history.

Ridge Road corridor improvements

Kendall County has other funding needs, which include improvements to Ridge Road. Ridge Road is a north-south corridor in eastern Kendall County.

“Right now, what the county is working on is [the] expansion of Ridge Road from Holt to Black roads, which is in the southern portion of Kendall County,” Burns said. “With all of the transportation infrastructure connecting to I-80, Ridge Road is a critical corridor for moving goods. It’s also the fastest-growing part of the county. We’re the fastest growing county, as you know, in the state.”

The project will include a bridge replacement and road expansion, which is expected to cost about $20 million. After the completion of that project, Ridge Road improvements are planned between Plainfield Road and Caton Farm Road at a cost expected to exceed $25 million.

Broadband

Kendall County continues to work on its goal of improving broadband access for Kendall County residents. More than 1,900 homes in Kendall County are considered unserved or underserved with internet access, county officials said.

The county has received a $15 million grant from the Illinois Office of Broadband that it is using to develop a public-private partnership that will result in more than $40 million in investment in a community-owned broadband network.

The Kendall County Board approved Denver-based technology firm Pivot-Tech to be the county‘s partner for building the broadband system.

“We hope to begin construction this summer,” Burns said. “That’s very exciting for Kendall County. Long term, this will be a publicly owned broadband system that operates as a nonprofit group.”