The Lake County Sheriff’s Department sought approval of helicopter maintenance findings and discussed a lease agreement for a storage facility with the Lake County Board of Commissioners at its Wednesday meeting.
The department’s EC 120 helicopter which was acquired new in 2009, according to the sheriff’s department websit, underwent its 12-year required inspection by the Federal Aviation Administration. The inspection identified $82,956.64 in maintenance “to ensure airworthiness and the safety of the pilots and the public,” said Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez in a statement.
According to the website, the department has three other helicopters, all of which are older.
Some of the maintenance done on the helicopter included replacing three blade vibration dampeners, which cost $30,000 total, and replacing the original skid tubes, which cost $18,000, Martinez said.
The department applied for and received grants from the Department of Homeland Security to pay for the inspection and maintenance of the helicopter, Martinez said, but budgetary item still had to be approved by the commissioners.
“The aircraft is essential to our capability of providing air, land and water support for law enforcement and the citizens of Lake County,” Martinez said.
In a 3-0 vote, the commissioner approved the helicopter maintenance findings and funding.
The commissioners also discussed the sheriff’s proposed lease of a storage building for three years for the amount of $342,144, or $114,048 annually. The lease is still being researched by the commissioners’ attorney and the sheriff’s department attorney, so the item wasn’t yet ready for a vote, said commissioners’ attorney Matthew Fech.
The sheriff’s department is “currently considering several locations to meet our needs” for a storage building, Martinez said. The storage building would hold equipment including armored vehicles, ATVs and boats to protect them from the weather, he said.
“The new building would allow us to move these items from our current storage building, which we would use exclusively to house vehicles, which are evidence for various investigations including homicides and serious crashes,” Martinez said.”
Lake County Chief of Police Vincent Balbo told the commissioners “the long-term plan” is to have a building built across the street from the Lake County Government Center in Crown Point. But, in the mean time, Balbo said the department is requesting a 3-year lease on another building.
Board President Mike Repay, D-3rd, said he’d like the sheriff’s department to consider “the entire market instead of just driving by a sign.”
“Whether that’s a request for proposals or however we do that, when the time comes,” Repay said. “Of course, there are criteria that you all would be interested in, proximity to the police station, but surely there’s more than just one or two.”
Martinez told the commissioners that the department has “been looking for several months to try to find a cost-effective, distance to the police department, readily available” location.
As the two lawyers work on the lease, Repay said he’d like them to “advertise some sort of request for presentation by any landlord” that’s interested.
“Maybe there’s a space right there that doesn’t have a sign in front of it, but if they knew about it they would submit some sort of proposal,” Repay said. “There may also be other government entities that have space or something like that.”
