Crime & Safety
Glencoe Public Safety Prepares For Facility Remodel
The remodel will streamline processing, operations for first responders.
Glencoe's 1950s-style public safety department is about to get a facelift. The ground floor offices have been cleared out as the building readies for an interior reconstruction beginning Monday.
"The station is completely gutted on the first floor. Everyone is in the basement. I'm the only one left," said Public Safety Director Michael Volling. "In my office, they took out all the filing cabinets. The only thing I have left is my desk."
The renovation is part of a bond measure approved by voters in 2008 to rehabilitate Glencoe's aging public facilities. The city approved $489,000 to renovate the combined police, fire and emergency medical technician services facility on Hazel Street.
While the station may have been good enough in the days of TV sheriff Andy Taylor and his deputy Barney Fife, it no longer adequately meets the technological needs of police and firefighters in the 21st century, said Volling and deputy chief Al Kebby.
"The whole Village Hall has been renovated," Kebby said. "This is the last phase.
"We're not getting any additional space," he added. "We're just trying to make better use of what we have."
Besides additional power outlets for more computers and electronic equipment, the current station is filled with an abundance of nooks and crannies, with too many doors, and too many Cold War-era halls and walls that must come down. The new station layout will be much more open.
The jail cells are also more fit for a television show than day-to-day use—bars on
the cell doors pose a suicide risk, said Kebby. In his 30 years on the force, there have been three suicide attempts at the Glencoe jail and one detainee died, he said.
Work on the public safety center should be finished in January. During the remodeling, Glencoe will make use of the facilities and cells in Winnetka and other nearby communities.
In the meantime, Volling, Kebby and the rest of the force will have to make do with cozier, temporary offices in the Public Safety building's basement.
