GOVERNMENT UNITED CITY OF YORKVILLE
Mayor John Purcell 630-553-8519
jpurcell@yorkville.il.us
Yorkville Mayor John Purcell has a vision for the community - a 41,000-square- foot City Hall located on a 4.5-acre City campus on the north side of Yorkville. And his vision is becoming a reality. In October 2020 the City Council voted to buy the building at 651 Prairie Pointe Dr. from Prime Yorkville LLC for $1.9 million, down from the $6.2 million it was listed at in 2019. Te City made the purchase with money from its general fund that it will repay by issuing a bond to be repaid over 20 years.
Te mayor says he is very excited about
the project. “When I was first elected (in April 2019), after former Police Chief Rich Hart retired, while I was interviewing Jim Jensen, (who he hired for the position), one of the things he asked was what was our plans for the City Hall building,” Mayor Purcell recalls. “We were tight for space.” He said he, City staff and aldermen talked about expanding the current City Hall building at 902 Game Farm Rd, which also includes the Yorkville Police Dept.; building a police department adjacent to the county jail; or moving into the City-owned former Old Second building on the southeast corner of Rt. 47 and Van Emmon Avenue, but rejected all of them. Te mayor, especially, had a strong opinion about the former bank building. “Tat’s not going to be City Hall,” Mayor Purcell said. “Tat has potential for economic development. Tat is a prime corner of the downtown. Tere should be a business there.”
Mayor John Purcell in front of the soon-to-be new Yorkville City Hall. Photo by Paul E. Burd Photography
Dept. staff, but not the Recreation Dept. preschool. Although originally scheduled to be completed by
December 2021, as of April 1 the new City Hall was on track to open sometime in spring of 2022, according to Mayor Purcell. Once the new City Hall is functional, City officials will then have the time to focus on the new campus, where the Mayor envisions someday a new Public Works Dept. building will be constructed. And maybe landscaping might even include a small lake. “Tere’s a lot going on,” Mayor Purcell admits.
Te lower-priced Prairie Pointe Building beckoned, and the City Council responded. With the purchase finalized, planners in the first months of 2021 were working on designing the layout for the new space. Some suggested adding an addition to the new building to allow the Council Chambers to be on the first floor, but the Mayor was against this proposal. He says he sees no reason the Council Chambers can’t be on the third floor. “Tat new building will suffice the City for 20 to 30 years
as it now is,” he says. In addition to the City’s administrative staff, the new facility will house the City’s Police Dept. and its Recreation
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