WATERVILLE — Police will move into a new police station at Head of Falls early next year, if all goes according to plan.
The City Council’s 5-2 vote Tuesday against buying the Morning Sentinel building for a police station automatically puts into effect a vote councilors took Feb. 7 to build at Head Falls, City Manager Michael Roy said Wednesday.
Councilors initially approved spending $2.5 million for a police station, but the city’s architect and construction manager estimate it will cost $3.2 million to build a single-story station at Head of Falls.
Roy said that amount is tentative and councilors could change the amount.
“It could go either way,” he said. “The commitment to spending is not final in any way. All they’ve approved is a site, and going out to bid.”
Tuesday’s vote to reject buying the Sentinel building followed a study by the city’s architect and construction manager, Port City Architecture and Wright-Ryan Construction Inc., to determine the best site for the station. The building, at 31 Front St., is on The Concourse, across Front Street from City Hall and the current police station.
They considered whether buying and renovating the building would be more cost effective for the city than building a new one at Head of Falls.
Port City, Wright-Ryan and the council-appointed Police Station Study Committee all recommended building new at Head of Falls.
Roy said Wednesday that there were a lot of twists and turns in the process for deciding on a police station site.
“At least now we’ve decided where, ” Roy said. “So I am very, very relieved that now we can proceed and meet this last remaining capital improvement need that the city is facing.”
The plan is to break ground for the police station by about Sept. 1, according to both Roy and John Charette of Port City.
Charette said Wednesday that it will likely take six to eight weeks to finish up designs and drawings for the police station. The process will include talking with Roy and police Chief Joseph Massey, he said.
“We expect police to be operating out of the new facility by early spring of next year,” Charette said.
A project that size typically takes six to eight months to build, he said.
Port City designed the Falmouth, Sanford and Old Orchard Beach police stations, according to Charette, who said his firm designs stations to last at least 50 years.
Roy said Wright-Ryan is the general contractor for the project and subcontracting work will be put out to bid as soon as a design is complete.
The police station will be built on a paved parking lot at Head of Falls, off Front Street and northeast of the Sentinel building. Included in the estimate for a new building is about $100,000 for removing underground debris on the site from buildings demolished there many years ago, according to Roy.
Another thing the city must do before construction starts is buy a sliver of land — less than 1/2 acre — from Pan Am Railways that abuts the parking lot where the station will be built, Roy said.
“The railroad is definitely a willing seller,” he said, adding that the city will have the land appraised as soon as possible.
“Then we have to negotiate with the railroad on price,” he said.
Councilor Erik Thomas, D-Ward 4, questioned the wisdom of having a police station on the other side of railroad tracks, because passing trains could block police when they need to get out onto the street in an emergency.
Roy said Wednesday that an access to Front Street from Head of Falls, north of the police station site, will be improved and used in the event a train is on the tracks.
“We’re definitely not going to be landlocked,” he said. “We have permission to use that exit. We have a price for improving it at $7,500 or less.”
He said an emergency exit should be developed for Head of Falls anyway, because an emergency could occur there during a festival or other event when a train is on the track. Also, if businesses or commercial ventures are developed on the waterfront, such an emergency exit would be important.
Andy Hyland of Port City noted at Tuesday’s meeting that, unlike firefighters who wait for calls inside their station, police officers typically are out in their cruisers when calls for service come in.
“It would be my opinion that that wouldn’t be a safety issue,” Hyland said.
Massey Tuesday night thanked councilors, Roy, Mayor Karen Heck and others for their work on the police station project, on behalf of the men and women who work at the police department.
“It didn’t go unnoticed,” he said. “I very, very much appreciate it.”
In return, Heck thanked police.
“I think that some people just don’t realize how much the Police Department does,” she said.
Meanwhile, newspaper employees continue to work in the Sentinel building, which is owned by MaineToday Media.
“MaineToday Media will be reviewing options for selling the building in the current market,” the company’s interim chief executive officer, Pat Sweeney, said Wednesday.
Amy Calder — 861-9247
acalder@centralmaine.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.
