In a somewhat timely announcement Monday, Columbia Mayor Bob Hill reported the city may be close to securing a property to be used for construction of a new public safety complex.

“I’ve been in talks for the past month and a half with a property owner, and I’m optimistic that will be our future site very shortly,” Hill said during the city council meeting. 

The facility at 1020 N. Main Street has been the subject of several improvement plans since the city’s emergency response departments began using the property in 1988, but only minor upgrades have been made over the past three-plus decades.

In that time, the population of Columbia has nearly doubled while the city’s police headquarters remain in a retro-fitted former office building, and Columbia EMS currently operates out of a trailer.

The issue was covered in a March 2021 Republic-Times article as well as being a topic during the city’s home rule referendum initiative in early 2023.

Hill said it has been a priority of his since being elected mayor in 2021.

“We have not stopped looking for the past three years,” Hill added. “It’s hard to find property in Columbia.”

The conversation began Monday night when Columbia Police Department Chief Jason Donjon spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting, with dozens of supporters in the audience.

“I am in no way trying to be argumentative, abrasive, not pointing fingers. That’s not what this is for,” Donjon said, adding he had received “a ton of questions” recently and wanted to “get talks going again” regarding a new public safety complex.

He told city officials “there’s not one person in here who doesn’t want us to have a new public safety complex… It’s good to have your support and we feel it, and have felt it in past weeks with the passing of Officer (Michael) Conrad,” who died recently following a three-year battle with cancer. 

“The topic has been brought back up,” Donjon said, adding, “At least at 1020 N. Main Street – it is extremely loud.”

While the topic of the building itself causing health problems was not explicitly stated, Hill alluded to “things on social media about the safety of the building” and mentioned the late Jared Reddick, another Columbia police officer who passed away after a battle with cancer.

Reddick died March  8, 2020, at the age of 36.

“We did a study on the building right after Officer Reddick’s death, an extensive study… Nothing was found in the building, environmentally, that would cause cancer,” Hill said.

“The employees’ health and safety is our highest priority as a city,” Hill continued, saying Environmental Consultants LLC tested for harmful electromagnetic fields and radon. 

Indoor air samples were taken for 97 different “volatile organic compounds,” and the test results showed “concentrations identified (were) indicated as low values, and are not likely to seriously impact human health.”

Hill said a representative of Environmental Consultants LLC will be in attendance at the May 20 council meeting to review those findings in greater detail.

“I know our current facilities are no longer adequate to support keeping Columbia safe,” Hill continued. “Our police station poses a significant liability to our officer’s safety and those in our custody.”

Hill also spoke about Columbia EMS operating from a FEMA trailer on the complex grounds.

“We would not allow our families to live in such deplorable conditions. It’s certainly not OK for our first responders,” Hill said.

Former Columbia Alderman Kevin Martens was scheduled to speak during public comment, but he declined, saying Donjon made most of the points he was going to make. 

“Let’s get going on this. It’s not going to be cheap. We gotta do something,” Martens said.

Hill agreed. 

“It’s a very old building, yes. We’ve outgrown it. It’s time to move on with it,” Hill reiterated.

One change that will happen if the public safety complex is constructed on a property other than 1020 N. Main Street will be a separation of the Columbia Volunteer Fire Department from the police and EMS departments, Hill reported.

“We were initially optimistic we would be able to continue our close relationship with the Columbia Fire Protection District and build a joint facility (in a new location), that way it would reduce redundancies and save taxpayers money. However, unfortunately, this has been rebuffed and will not be possible,” Hill said.

Columbia Fire Department Chief Mike Roediger spoke with the Republic-Times about Hill’s comments.

Roediger said he would “love to be with the city” and keep fire department operations near police and EMS, but added the current fire station “right now is in a great place.”

Roediger explained that of the department’s 42 firefighters, 20 live in the immediate vicinity of the current station.

Based on last year’s numbers, the average dispatch response time for the fire department was two minutes and five seconds.

Roediger speculated that moving the fire department to a shared public safety complex would likely have an adverse affect on those times, also noting the fire district is a separate taxing body from the city’s police and EMS departments. 

Hill continued his comments by describing the process which led to the city being close to finding a new location. 

He said that in the past several years, the firm FGM Architects had facilitated discussion of layout, location and overall design of a new complex, and the city had looked at six locations “along Main Street and beyond.”

Hill noted that “concerns have been expressed on nearly every location,” but he was “optimistic we are close to securing a site – although it may not be the ideal location to some – but all stakeholders involved need to keep an open mind on other locations that will serve the citizens of Columbia for the next 50 to 70 years just like the current location.”

In other business from Monday’s city council meeting, Columbia City Engineer Chris Smith was on hand to receive approval to move ahead with several projects and to apply for a grant to finance a future project.

The council approved a resolution supporting the city’s application for an Illinois Department of Natural Resources grant to construct a future bike trail for a “Quarry Road Connector Project.”

Smith explained the city had applied for a similar grant several years ago, but  its project was not selected.

Smith was more optimistic about this grant, as he said the state has significantly more money earmarked for project grants of this nature in the current fiscal year.

The project, which would create a path along Quarry Road with a pedestrian bridge over Palmer Creek then tie into Ghent Road improvements, would cost somewhere between $400,000 and $450,000, Smith estimated.

If approved, the grant would cover up to 50 percent of the cost providing a maximum of $200,000. 

The project would cover “a significant gap that would make a complete loop with pedestrian and bike accommodations from Ghent Road to Main Street to Rueck Road to Quarry Road, with the GM&O trail bisecting as well,” Smith said.

“This is huge if we can get this grant,” Hill said, noting the popularity of the existing paths in the city. 

Council also approved a preliminary engineering agreement with Gonzalez Companies LLC for the second phase of a reconstruction project on Centerville Road.

Smith said the project would focus on Centerville Road “just shy of Riebeling,” but the scope of the project ultimately depends on the sanitary sewer which needs to be replaced.

The next meeting of the Columbia City Council will be held at 7 p.m. May 20 at City Hall.