Tuesday, November 17, 2009

City Council Makes Decision On Police Station

At last night's council meeting the council made a decision on the police station. It did not come easy and at times they seemed frustrated with the discussion. From the audience point of view, it seemed like council members Zimmerman and Malpezzi were trying to delay the project. This was even noticed by one of the council members that said something along the line of "are you two trying to delay the project so you can get a swimming pool?"

The final motion came after a one hour study session before the meeting and another during the meeting. Here is what I gathered was the final decision passed by council last night, please correct me if I am wrong.

1. They authorized the architect to move forward on the 18,000 sq. ft. version of the police station with options for a reduction to 15,000 sq. ft. They expect this to come back in about 6 months.
2. During this time, they plan on getting the bids back to repair and remodel the old Boys and Girls Club in Pioneer Park and proceed with that work.
3. At the completion of the remodeled Boys and Girls club, the library would be given 30 days, give or take, to move into that facility as a temporary facility while they continue fund raising or construction of their new building next to city hall.
4. Site preparation for the police station and new library building could start before the library moves out of the existing building.
5. Once the library has moved out of their current building the rest of the remodel would be done so that the police could move in.
6. They also voted to give the library $1 million plus the land nest to city hall to build on.
7. It is the hope of the council that the projects could get done for around $5 million with the benefit of the lower construction costs in today's market.

There are still some variables up in the air at this time as the council has not received the bids or time line to repair/remodel the old Boys and Girls club.

Stay tuned for further developments. We have been in this position before where council agreed on a plan only to have it get derailed at a later date. I hope this one goes through. Our police need there new home and the community needs an Emergency Operations Center as part of that new home.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks Brent. I think your summary is acurate except for one detail. Whether we build a 15000 or 18000 sq foot police station, it will cost between 4.5 and 5 million. With really good bids, we may get 18,000 for about 4.5. Add to that approximately 1/2 million to remodel the old Boys and Girl's club, add restrooms and make it useable as a Library, plus the 1 million we promised last night as a cash donation to the library fund and we have a total of 6 million that will need to be bonded.

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