The city of DeKalb is looking for ways to give the Police Department more space.

The DeKalb Police are based on the first floor of the city’s municipal building, 200 S. Fourth Street, and this facility is reaching capacity.

“I just gave away my last female locker, and I have officers at desks where secretaries should be,” said Police Chief Bill Feithen.

The city has several options for obtaining more space for the police department.

A city report recommended construction of a 50,000 square foot facility at a cost of $20 million.

City Manager Mark Biernacki said the city could not afford such a facility for at least 10 years

The exact location of such a facility has yet to be determined, Feithen said.

“Seventy-five percent of our calls and population are located west of First St. and north of the tracks,” he said.

A new building would allow for the growth of the police department through the next 25 years to its projected size of 150 employees, Biernacki said.

The city could afford other options in the price range of $5 to 7.5 million at this time, Biernacki said.

If the police department occupied the entire municipal building, its current occupants would move out, Biernacki said. This short-term solution would cost about $6 million in renovation and relocation costs.

Lack of funding for the city’s long term building has led the city council to prepare for the creation of a public facilities impact fee.

The fee would be assessed on new development, Biernacki said. This fee does not yet have a dollar amount associated with it, but the funds raised through it could be used to help offset the costs of renovation, he said.

The council decided against imposing a facilities impact fee about a decade ago, 5th Ward Alderman Pat Conboy said.

“It’s regrettable that we didn’t proceed some nine to 10 years ago with the impact fee some of us have been proposing,” Conboy said.

In other business the council discussed the snow removal service’s performance during the recent wave of snow storms.

It took Public Works crews about 500 man hours and 500 tons of salt to get the streets clear after the last major storm, Public Works Director Rick Monas said.

“Having the students gone helped because there was less traffic and fewer cars parked on the roads,” Monas said.