Swansea plans to move village hall to expand police department

The Village of Swansea has plans to relocate its village hall to make more room for its police department.

“Our police department has grown so much,” Mayor Ken Mueller said on Friday. “They really, really desperately need the space.”

Currently, the police department and administrative offices share a building on North Illinois Street. Mueller estimated the police department has about 5,000 square feet, and he said it needs almost twice as much space.

Craig Coughlin, deputy police chief, said the police department’s current facility was built when the department had 11 officers. Now, there are 20 officers.

“We have really outgrown our space,” he said.

The village has purchased the old driver’s license facility at 1440 Boul Avenue for $225,000, and the village’s administrative offices will be relocated to that building, which is 4,600 square feet. The buildings sits on 1.27 acres and has 54 parking spaces.

“It will work really well for the space we need,” Mueller said. “For the most part, the building is in relatively good shape.”

He said the new location will have easier access for area residents, who have a hard time entering and existing the current building’s parking lot off of Illinois 159 due to high-traffic volume on the highway.

“The ingress and egress for all residents will really be nice,” Mueller said.

The new village hall will also have a drive-up area where residents can drop off their sewer bill payments. Inside, there will be a larger counter where multiple residents will be able to be helped at one time.

“We want to make it very, very customer friendly,” Mueller said.

In the future, village officials hope to add a message board outside to inform residents of happenings in the village.

Both the current village hall and the former driver’s license facility will be remodeled. A majority of the work being done by village employees, according to Mueller.

Renovation work at the old driver’s license facility will include taking out walls, painting, installation of new flooring and resealing the parking lot.

Once the remodel work is complete, village meetings will be held at the new government center on Boul Avenue.

The old driver’s license facility was built in 1990 and most recently housed United Way and the Allstate training facility.

The United Way has relocated its office to Shiloh, according to Jerilyn Sinskey, vice president of the United Way’s Illinois Division.

The new office is located at 1124 Hartman Lane, Suite 130.

Sinskey said the United Way was notified in January about the village’s plans to purchase the building and began “frantically” looking for new space. She said they looked throughout the metro-east.

The Shiloh location has the same square footage as the former office space, according to Sinskey. In addition, it has a shared meeting space now, which Sinskey said the Illinois Division can use for its board meetings. Previously, the meetings had to be held off site at the O’Fallon Public Safety building.

The Illinois Division of the United Way also has offices in Granite City and East Alton.

A time frame for the remodeling plans has not been finalized. The village closed on the purchase of the Boul Avenue building on Tuesday.

“It will be a little while before we get in there,” Mueller said, estimating the work will take several months. “When we do it will be a lot better for everybody.”

This story was originally published April 1, 2016 at 1:50 PM with the headline "Swansea plans to move village hall to expand police department."