DeKalb Police Chief Bill Feithen approached the DeKalb City Council Monday night and requested the council provide him direction in purchasing a site north of the train tracks for construction of a new police facility.

That request, however, wasn’t fulfilled as the council suggested Feithen consider more cost-effective methods.

The request from Feithen and the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 115 was to proceed forward with the city’s Ax-In-Hand facility, a former guitar shop, which is critical to the department because of its proximity north of the train tracks.

Feithen’s main concern was to build a police facility that was north of the tracks because a good percentage of the city’s crime occurs there. Also, Feithen said the train barricades are down throughout the city a total of four hours each day, which can provide an enormous strain in responding to calls on the city’s north side.

“We’re a town divided in two by these railroad tracks,” said 6th Ward Alderman David Baker.

The Ax-In-Hand land currently is being marketed for $900,000, and it prompted Feithen to look for immediate direction if the city were to purchase this land before it is sold to another entity.

But Mayor Greg Sparrow showed very little favor toward this project. He stated the overall cost from purchasing the land, building the police facility and any other costs incurred throughout the process would force the city to spend about $1.5 million a year over a 20-year period.

Given budget constraints the city already has, this, in Sparrow’s and some aldermen’s opinions, wasn’t viable.

“The decision here has to be first if we want the facility north or south of the tracks,” Sparrow said. “What I’m going to say then is, where are we going to fund this?”

One option Sparrow suggested as an alternative to a new facility would be to renovate the existing police site, which would both prevent the city from having to fund construction for a new building and utilize TIF dollars to help fund the renovation.

He, along with Baker, debated another option, that being the purchase of the Sawyer land, a former car dealership that is located across the road from the police station and could provide much-needed additional parking.

“How you fund this, that’s going to be the bottom line,” Sparrow said. “Keep in mind our need to build another fire station as well. Until we can find a way to fund it, I think you need to stick right here.”

Sparrow also expressed a desire to consider the implementation of a substation at the 7th Street fire station as a means of providing a few extra officers north of the tracks who could shorten response time to the city’s northwest side.

Doing so, Sparrow said, could prove adequate or otherwise provide the city a temporary solution, should dollars come forth in upcoming years that would warrant funding a new facility.

Feithen, however, rebutted by saying a substation would only delay the problem. He believed in upcoming years that building costs would increase and the Axe-In-Hand site, the option the police department currently feels is the best opportunity, would likely be sold or increase in price.

Feithen suggested purchasing the Axe-In-Hand site now, but waiting a couple of years to build the facility once money becomes available. If that money wasn’t available down the road, the city could possibly sell the land back and virtually get most of its money back, if not profit from it.

The council, after nearly an hour of open forum discussion, decided to keep all options open, but to have Feithen look heavily into the Sawyer site. Otherwise, they suggested Feithen consider a substation or remaining in the current location.