UPDATE August 1, 2023

• IGW Architects from Urbana, Illinois was selected as the architect and project manager. 
• Reliable Environmental Solutions, Inc. from Springfield, Illinois was selected as the asbestos abatement project manager. 
• After receiving sealed bids, Felmley Dickerson Company of Champaign, Illinois was selected as the general contractor for this project.  
• Bidding is underway to select an asbestos abatement contractor.  
  • Asbestos abatement starts on August 21st.
  • Once that is complete, then the general contractor will start its remodeling work.  
• The ILEAS Governing Board has met and approved the plan and the expenditure of the funds and engagement of contracts 
• Over the summer, ILEAS part time individuals who were assigned some demolition work (removal of cabinets, cleaning, furniture/equipment moving) to prepare the A and B Wings for construction. 
• Berns, Clancy and Associates of Urbana, Illinois was selected as the parking lot engineers. 
  • Bidding will begin shortly for the parking lot contractor.  

It should be noted that the State of Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) developed Business Enterprise Program (BEP) goals for this project. The BEP goals established by DCEO was the hiring of minority and female-owned businesses.  The goals were set at 11% minority-owned businesses/contractors and 7% female-owned businesses/contractors. with regard to the general and asbestos contractors, ILEAS has met those goals.   

ILEAS would also like to thank the late Senator Scott Bennett and his family for working hard to identify the funding to make this project come to life.  

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As we have previously announced, ILEAS received a $3 million grant from the State of Illinois through the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) to remodel the ILEAS Training Center (ITC).  The grant is routed from through the City of Urbana to ILEAS as a sub-grantee.  ILEAS is currently awaiting the final approval from DCEO.  However, we have already issued an RFP for architectural services and selected IGW Architecture (IGW) from Urbana as the project architect.  The project budget will be $2.975 million ($25,000 retained by Urbana for grant processing).  Based on a previous feasibility study, the remodeling will focus on:

• Remodeling and upgrading the basement storage area in order to safely store and secure communications technology
• Expand and resurface the north parking lot to accommodate more vehicles
• Demolish individual rooms and remove the ceiling in the B Wing of the building in order to accommodate more versatile scenario-based training events 
• Remove the remaining asbestos in the building 
• Expand the shipping/receiving area 
• Create a new "laboratory" style classroom where training can be conducted that requires the ability to be cleaned easily.  This includes the annual EOD robot maintenance training, crime scene processing and other training that cannot be conducted in a normal carpeted classroom 
• Clean-up of one of the five enclosed courtyards to be used for outdoor training not visible to the public

Bids for the work have been going out and the engineering/architectural work is being completed. Once the remodeling is completed, ILEAS will have a community-wide open house to highlight what is available at the ITC for professional groups to rent/lease.