Danville renovates offices

The building has been undergoing work nearly nonstop this year, even before COVID-19. In February, the village finally uncovered and eliminated the source of a mysterious odor that had been plaguing the municipal offices for years. Village crews have also designed and worked on the new police department, as well as renovated the restrooms to be ADA complaint.

The ADA compliant restrooms now have new, wider doorways that allow for wheelchair access.

There is still work yet to be done. The men’s restroom is still waiting for fixtures and the bathroom stall to be installed. Mazzari said he expects the plumber will come in and finish it up soon. The renovated building is also expected to have internet cables rewired to be more organized and incorporate the new police department.

Crews will also install ADA compliant automatic door openers to the front doors once the parts arrive. Mazzari explained that this will not only allow the elderly and people with disabilities to open the doors with the push of a button but reduce the public’s need to touch the handles under COVID-19.

The village also plans to install a drop box next to the front door for people to make no-contact drop-offs of bill payments.

“We’ve come a long way in six months,” Mazzari said, remarking on the renovation progress.

The new police department entrance will be located in the back of the building, next to the Thomas Cottrell memorial wall. A phone will be mounted on the wall by the entrance. Visitors can use it to reach officers in the office or dial 911 if officers are unavailable.

Mazzari noted that being a small village department, all the officers are also patrolmen and cannot staff the office at all times.

With limited space, the police used to conduct their interviews in the building’s conference room shared by the council, the library and the police department.

The new office space will afford both the chief of police and lieutenant their own offices. The lieutenant, in particular, conducts specialized investigations that need separation from the rest of the building, according to Mazzari.

The close proximity between police business and other village services accessed by the public, such as the library, had been a safety concern raised by village council.

Council initially proposed to divide the shared conference room in half and give the back half to the police department. As the project evolved, the village eventually decided against that idea to preserve the back door connecting the conference room with the maintenance crew garage.

The police department will still get two new offices and its own separate entrance, and the conference room gets to keep its size.

In fact, the conference room might become bigger with future renovations. An approximately 5 feet by 8 feet storage closet currently sits between the conference room and the furnace room. Due to fire hazard, the wall between the closet and the conference room will be taken down to allow direct access to the furnace room, according to Mazzari.

The closet previously housed various library supplies. Once the closet is eliminated, the expanded conference room will include new utility cabinets for library supplies to be stored, Mazzari said.

As the renovations continued, some aspects of the project worked out as happy accidents and some came as unexpected additions — one being the new police offices have prompted the village to re-examine the internet cable wiring in the building.

There are currently three computer network hardware stacks in the old police office, the library, and the village offices, according to Mazzari. The police department will need the old cables rewired to their new location.

With that in mind, Mazzari suggested that the consideration right now is to reincorporate the police and the village networks and move the combined network stack into the furnace room.

The work is expected to cost over $4,000 and is something currently in discussion among council. Mazzari expects the matter will be decided in the next council meeting.