Thank you to the Landmark for your ongoing coverage of the village of Riverside’s review of its public safety facilities (News, June 24) and your recent publication of the letter to the editor from a Riverside resident. I appreciate the Landmark’s role in facilitating this community conversation.
I want to take this opportunity to clarify and correct statements from the referenced letter to the editor. Contrary to the letter’s title, the proposed building is a public safety facility and not a town hall. The village’s administrative offices will remain in the Town Hall, including the Village President’s Office, Village Manager’s Office, Community Development Department, and Finance Department. There is a portion of the existing police station that will be used as additional office and storage space and a portion of the new building dedicated for use by Riverside TV and for Information Technology. Riverside TV and Information Technology support all village departments, including public safety. These spaces combined are less than 5% of the total square footage of the proposed building.
I would also like to clarify the purpose of certain rooms within the new building. The Riverside Village Board and our design consultants have strived to add value and utility to the public safety building by giving some spaces a dual purpose. For example, a multi-purpose meeting room (referenced as the “community room” in the plans) with modern audio/visual capabilities is necessary for police and fire training. At no added cost, that room may also be used for village meetings, community groups, and made available for private events. Likewise, police and fire personnel require fitness facilities and a kitchen. Again, at no added cost, those facilities may be used by other village departments, residents, community groups, and even for parks and recreation programming.
Concerns about costs are shared by all. We have asked our design consultants to itemize the cost to renovate the existing public safety facilities. Renovation would exceed $8 million and under any scenario, renovation will not improve the lack of space nor the functional limitations inherent in the size of existing spaces. Cost per resident has also been cited as a concern. Cost per resident is not a relevant comparison as a fire and police station serving 9,000 residents costs much the same as one serving 20,000 or more residents.
I have also heard concerns about the potential closing of Fire Station #2 north of the BNSF tracks. That concern is based on the false assumption that the two stations are necessary to provide full service to residents when the tracks are blocked. The two stations are not redundant nor is that redundancy necessary. We have mutual aid agreements with all of our neighboring public safety departments and, in fact, share a 911 dispatch service with our neighbors. It is already the case that the first available responder will be on the scene regardless of whether that is a Riverside responder or one of our highly qualified neighboring departments. This has proven to work for many years not only in Riverside but in other communities that border the BNSF train line. As examples, Clarendon Hills and Hinsdale each have only one fire station.
I also want to stress that information about public safety facilities and their costs has been disseminated via a wide variety of platforms over the last eight-plus years. A property tax calculator is available on our website that allows residents to plug in the value of their home and immediately see the property tax impact of a public safety referendum. Village staff presented the tax impacts as early as our March 19, 2026 board meeting. The Landmark has reported this information as well. An open house was held in June, and the village is also offering tours of the existing public safety facilities.
I encourage residents to attend one of the tours and see for themselves whether a new facility is needed to support our first responders. I also encourage everyone to stay engaged, ask questions, and share their thoughts and suggestions.
We are all fortunate to be residents of Riverside and I believe we share a common goal: maintaining our quality of life and ensuring that future generations of Riversiders have the same privilege.
Doug Pollock is the village president of Riverside.
