Huntley officials are building a new facility for servicing the village’s vehicles.
The village is constructing a new fleet facility at the corner of Main Street and Huntley-Dundee Road. It will replace the existing facility at the corner of Main and Donald Drive.
The current facility is more than 35 years old, and was built when Huntley was maintaining two pieces of equipment. The village now maintains 130 pieces of equipment, said Jason Irvin, deputy director of public works.
The fleet services department maintains Huntley municipal vehicles and equipment, from snowplows to heavy construction equipment to squad cars.
In those years in the old space, Huntley has grown immensely. The village had a population of 2,453 in 1990, according to U.S. Census Bureau records. In the 2020 census, 27,740 residents were counted in Huntley.
The village is “way overdue” for a new facility, and the old one is “outdated,” Irvin said. Huntley is running out of space in its current fleet services facility, and Irvin said officials determined a new facility would be more cost-effective than trying to modernize the current space.
And even if the village spent the money to modernize it, the property is still too small for what is needed, Irvin said.
Among the amenities of the new facility are more service bays – the current facility has two – along with more space to work with and a dedicated parts room and fluid storage room. Irvin said parts and fluids are currently stored on the shop floor.
Once the move is complete, the fleet services team will triple its space. The current facility is around 4,800 square feet, and the new one is about 17,412 square feet, Irvin said.
Officials plan to break ground as soon as weather permits, Irvin said, adding the village hopes the new building will be fully operational by July 2027. The old building will be demolished, Irvin said.
Huntley Village Manager Dave Johnson said the building will come with a $7 million price tag.
The village is planning to issue $6 million in bonds to finance the project, and will use home rule sales tax dollars to pay that back, Johnson said. The other $1 million will be covered by general fund surplus dollars.
Johnson said Huntley officials decided to earmark home rule sales tax dollars for infrastructure and public improvement needs when they implemented the tax.
Johnson said the village has been exploring the new facility for the “better part” of the past two years.