If council members approve, the existing police facility at the Kettering Government Center will be renovated and an additional floor will be added for office space for the chief, captains, and administrative staff, according to Schwieterman.
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“On Tuesday night at the Kettering City Council meeting, administration will be asking council to approve the appropriation for design services for the renovation of our police department,” he explained.
The design work will be for about $500,000.
“Currently, based on our conceptual renderings and space utilization studies we are anticipating a roughly $6.9 million total project cost,” Schwieterman said.
The latest effort to improve public safety facilities comes on the heels of a multi-million dollar overhaul of the fire department.
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“We’ve gone from a seven station model down to a four station model with our fire department and the last station on Dorothy Lane will be completed later this year,” Schwieterman said. “In total, the fire department project is roughly $30 million for those new stations and the equipment.”
Schwieterman said the police department renovation project planning was part of a two-year analysis that also included a space utilization study.
“Our finance department, once the design is done and we have a schedule put together, will determine whether or not we will utilize our general fund reserves for the project or we go out and issue notes,” he said. “We could do both as well. But we will make that decision after the design is back and we have a little firmer estimate on what the total cost will be.”
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If approved by council Tuesday, the city would enter into a design services contract in 2018 and by mid-2019 be ready to put the renovation project out to bid.
“We anticipate because it is a renovation and they will have to work around our existing operations that it will take about 18 months to complete construction,” Schwieterman said. “So, I would say at this point that the earliest we would see a completed product would be in 2021.”
Schwieterman feels an update to the police facility is necessary.
“Certainly, we need some renovations to our police department. It has been a very long-time since we’ve had an overhaul in that facility,” Schwieterman explained. “New HVAC and mechanical equipment is necessary, and we also need to change the space utilization because our police station doesn’t operate in the same manner that it operated 30 years ago.”
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Modernization with an eye towards the future is something he feels will make the new design a benefit to the community.
“So, I think it will be a benefit to the public in that we will bringing some access to the ground level of this plaza. But also, certainly a benefit to our operations as we will build a new station that is built around the way we police today,” Schwieterman said.
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