If the Washington City Council adopts the 2016-2017 fiscal year budget during its meeting Monday, doing so would resurrect the effort to build a new police station. View the agenda HERE.

The proposed $75 million overall budget calls for using the 2-cent increase in the city’s property-tax rate to set aside money to help pay for a new police station. “The tax increase is to be used solely for the land acquisition and construction of a new police station,” according to City Manager Bobby Roberson.

Stacy Drakeford, the city’s Police and Fire Services director, has made it clear several times he considers the police station, built in the 1970s, outdated and inadequate. The existing station on West Third Street is cramped, outdated and subject to flooding after heavy rains. It’s been that way for at least 15 years, according to city officials. The aging station does not meet many current standards for police station, according to city officials.

For several years, the city has been setting aside part of its general-fund revenues into a reserve fund to help pay for capital expenditures such as building a new police station. Of the city’s current property-tax rate of 50 cents per $100 valuation, just under two cents of that rate is designated for the city’s Public Safety Capital Reserve. Currently, that fund receives about $170,000 each fiscal year.

Currently, the city’s Public Safety Capital Reserve fund has $867,892 in it earmarked for the new police station.

In 2011, the city suspended efforts to build a new police station, citing the lack of funds. When the city suspended those efforts, the total estimated cost of a new police station — construction, site preparation, soil analysis, architectural/engineering fees, moving costs and other fees — came to an estimated $4.3 million, according to figures provided to the council. The construction cost and site work cost combined came to $3.22 million. At the council’s March 8, 2011, meeting, the council decided it wanted the project cost closer to $3 million rather than $4.3 million.

The council was on record as supporting allocating $3 million for the new station, with $1 million in revenue coming from the city’s public-safety reserve fund, another $1 million borrowed from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and $1 million from other sources, including grants.

The city has looked a building a separate police station or a facility that would house police, fire, rescue an EMS services.

The council meets at 5:30 p.m. Monday in the Council Chambers in the Municipal Building, 102 E. Second St. To view the council’s agenda for Monday, click HERE.