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the highland park landmark | October 3, 2019 | 11
Residents take advantage of opportunity to see inside City buildings
2
Hilary Anderson
Freelance Reporter
Rain and a dreary Saturday
did not stop residents
from taking sneak peaks
inside Highland Park
buildings most never get
to see during Open Doors
Highland Park held Sept.
28, one of the HP 150 Architecture
Committee’s
events celebrating Highland
Park’s 150th anniversary,
The free event opened
doors to about 16 Highland
Park buildings that
generally are not open to
the public and provided
an opportunity for curious
residents to go behind the
scenes, get answers and
learn more about the who,
what, where and why of
places in their community.
Families receive a tour of a jail cell, Sept. 28, at Open
Doors Highland Park, from Deputy Chief Jon Lowman.
Phil Bach/22nd Century Media
Don Jensen, Superintendent
of Water Production
and Henry Peskator, Plant
Operator who work at the
City of Highland Park
Water Treatment Plant at
Park Avenue Beach gave
residents at the Open Door
event a tour of the facility.
“Where does Highland
Park’s drinking water
come from when one turns
on the kitchen faucet,”
Peskator asked. “There is
a lot more to it than most
people know about or usually
ask until it has an odor
or does not taste the way
they think it should. There
are people here on duty
24/7, holidays included,
making sure Highland
Park residents have the
best drinking water.”
The safety of the water
that goes from the Highland
Park Water Treatment
Plant to area households is
their number one concern.
The staff of 11 at the
plant uses the most updated
technology to maintain
this effort. They recently
converted from conventional
surface water treatment
technology to the
new ultrafiltration membrane
treatment technology
to better ensure the
water sent to customers
is the cleanest, purest and
safest possible.
Another Highland Park
building many residents
had a chance to see inside
was the relatively new and
energy efficient Highland
Park Police Department’s
prairie style headquarters
building.
A space needs study
for Highland Park’s Police
Department started
in 2000. It had been sharing
space with the fire department
that ultimately
moved to a new location.
It was not until 2005 that
construction actually began.
“Our biggest challenge
was that we had to construct
the facility on the
same property as the former
facility and remain
fully operational during
construction,” said Sgt.
Michael Olshelfke, Highland
Park Police Department
Investigations Sergeant
and Project Manager
for the new building.
“We had a two phase
project with tearing down
half of our old facility,
building part of the new
facility, then moving into
the new facility, tearing
down the remainder of the
old and completing the rest
of the Project, which took
about two years.”
The facility was constructed
with energy-efficiency
in mind.
“This includes our mechanicals,
such as the
chiller system, which uses
water to heat and cool
the outside air to raise or
lower the desired air temperature,
to the computer
Please see open doors, 15
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