Middletown officials plan to include the police department renovations in the town’s Fiscal Year 27 budget.
The Police Accountability Committee reported the renovation project is in its beginning stages. Town Council selected Becker Morgan as the architect to update the facility that opened in 2009.
The police department outgrew its space and needs to expand, according to Councilmember David Thomas.
“The other thing we believe is that it's vital for the community to have a big enough facility…” Thomas said. “Probably one of the more important things to do is in a community room – actually have it so they don't have to actually go through the police station when they do have an event. They can just go through the side, right into that community room.”
Police Chief Henry Tobin updated Committee members on the project and concurred the community room is a priority.
“There's two challenges with our current configuration, besides the size of the room,” Tobin said. “But the other problem is we’ve got victims in the lobby reporting offenses, and then we have waiting for a police officer, and then you have people going in and out, because that's the only way to that community room. And it's just not a great dynamic.”
Because the station doesn’t have the ability to staff someone to help with the community room around the clock, it’s not always available to residents.
Tobin said the station has already tapped an architect who knows they want to create a more accessible space for community members with its own separate entrance.
Bidding by construction companies will likely take a couple months, and Tobin said construction could begin by the end of this calendar year or early next year.
