By By MIKE VOSS
Contributing Editor
Two meetings concerning the city’s plan to build a new police station take place today.
A subcommittee of the Washington City Council meets at 9:30 a.m. today to discuss finances related to building a new police station. A site-selection advisory committee, composed of city residents, meets at 5:30 p.m. to review a list of 23 proposed sites for the new police station. Both meetings take place at City Hall.
Councilman Doug Mercer, during the council’s committee-of-the-whole meeting Monday, said the city needs to determine the size of the new police station and determine how much land will be needed to accommodate the new police station before it can decide who much money to spend on the new facility. The size of the new police station, its design and the amount of land required for the new facility should be the key factors in determining the price of the new police station and how the city will pay for building the new facility, Mercer said.
Until the city takes that approach, the notion of building a new police station is akin to a “runaway train headed downhill” toward and end result of a “crash,” Mercer said.
Mayor Pro Tempore Bobby Roberson has similar views.
“Until I actually see the numbers, it’s hard for me to make a decision,” he said.
The city has been selected to receive a $4 million loan and a $100,000 grant to help pay for a new police station, but Mayor Archie Jennings, Mercer and other council members are not sure the city can afford to accept the loan and grant.
Jennings said the idea of borrowing $4 million for the new police station won’t fly.
Once a site has been selected for the new police station and a design for it developed, the cost of the new police station could be less than $4 million, meaning the city would not need to borrow that amount to build the new facility, those city officials contend.
The council wants the site-selection committee to narrow the list of possible sites from 23 to about three to five. The council also indicated that a new police station that contains 15,000 square feet of space and is located on about 2 acres would be adequate.
The site-selection committee, under previous council instructions, was told to eliminate sites within the 100-year flood plain or that contained “blue-line” ditches or streams (loosely defined as ditches or streams usually filled with some amount of flowing water). During its meeting Monday, the council decided that any sites rejected under that criteria should be brought to the council’s attention if the city owns those sites. The council indicated it may be interested in such sites for the new police station if costs to make those sites suitable for the new police station are not prohibitive.
The council wants to have a site selected by the latter part of March, if possible, but it indicated it will not rush the selection process.
If the city chooses not to accept the $4 million loan, it will “lose the grant,” City Manager James C. Smith said. If the city opts to seek a smaller loan in the future, it will have to begin the application process anew, he said.