City Issues Building Permit For Neva-Wood Cops Home

For two years, volunteers in the Nevada-Lidgerwood neighborhood have talked about their dream of converting two vacant houses into a headquarters for their community policing operation.

Saturday, one of the houses on the northwest corner of Addison and Wellesley was quickly becoming a heap of wood and plaster.

But that was considered progress.

The building permit for the project took some two years to secure. It finally was issued by City Hall on Friday.

A day later, volunteers started pounding away.

A fence was placed around the property, dead trees cut down, pipes, a heater and old fixtures cleared away.

Most of all, walls were being demolished, with plaster being loaded into trash cans and pickup trucks.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Mel West, a retiree who has been involved in the neighborhood for 18 years.

West stood in the house Saturday with a hammer and white plaster mask, one of a dozen volunteers.

The house at 4705 N. Addison was going to be gutted and converted to offices for North Side police officers, probation and parole staff and prosecuting attorneys assigned to the area.

The house next door to the north would be the COPS substation, a place where residents can file crime reports, get information about crime prevention and become more involved in community programs.

The space between the homes - now a 30-foot hole - will be filled with concrete and then be used for a recreation and meeting hall.

The neighborhood has been among the most organized in the city as far as its community policing efforts. It has a full-time Neighborhood Observation Patrol where volunteers ride local streets logging license numbers and suspicious activity. The information then gets passed along to patrol officers.

An alley patrol will begin in February and plans are also under way to train volunteers to investigate residential garage burglaries, a function police can no longer handle because of caseloads.

All the labor for construction of the police substation and COPS shop has been donated and the supplies needed will be paid for with money from the neighborhood’s community development fund.

Dennis Kuhl, 62, was among the volunteers Saturday who started at 9 a.m. by placing fencing around the construction area.

The day before he had hauled six loads of dead trees to the incinerator.

He said the project was well worth his time because it should get more people involved in community policing.

“They can see the accomplishment,” he said. “They can see we’re going someplace with it.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo