From the Mind of Jason Zandri

As published in the Record Journal Thursday November 26, 2009

By Dave Moran
Record-Journal staff
dmoran@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2224

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WALLINGFORD — A new police station on the Wooding-Caplan property could include 45 public parking spaces but would cost $20.25 million to $23.69 mil­lion, depending on how soon con­struction starts, plus at least an­other $8 million over the life of a 20-year bond.

Officials including town coun­cilors and Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr. are left to weigh this information after an architect rec­ommended against trying to ex­pand the 135 N. Main St. police headquarters.

The report, by Brian Humes of Jacunski Humes Architects in Berlin, said there is enough space for a new facility at the adjacent Wooding-Caplan parcel, which is behind the storefronts on the northeast corner of Center and North Main streets.

The 3.5-acre property has been mostly vacant since the town ac­quired it for $1.5 million in 1992. Officials must decide whether to place a 47,000-square-foot build­ing there or move the Police De­partment out of the central busi­ness district, as towns such as Southington have done.

Dickinson, a Republican who has held office since 1984, called the new station a high priority, but he wouldn’t say whether he favors a downtown site or a more rural location. Dickinson also said construction isn’t likely to start in the next year.

“I do think there is a comfort in what you know of as the existing condition, and that is having the Police Department right there,” he said. “I think they’ll probably be a variety of occasions for re­viewing this issue, but I don’t see us implementing an actual proj­ect in 2010.”
The Town Council appeared to lack consensus after dis­cussing the matter Tuesday. Concerns included the loca­tion and the cost. A new coun­cil will be seated Jan. 4.

Humes told the council a new station on the Wooding-Caplan property would pro­vide 150 parking spaces, about 45 of which would be available for public parking.

He also addressed options for the current headquarters, which could be demolished or sold to a developer. Although the prop­erty is in a downtown historic district that is on the National Register of Historic Places, there are no restrictions on the building, he said.

The town would likely bond a project of that size over 20 years, said Comptroller James Bowes. Bowes estimated that fi­nance charges could add an estimated $8 million to the final price tag over the life of the bonds, and that the first year’s repayment costs alone would be about $1.8 million, the equiv­alent of a half a mill in taxes. The station’s cost is estimated to increase the longer the town waits because of inflation and rising material costs.

A mill represents $1 in taxes for each assessed $ 1,000 of property value. Wallingford’s tax rate is 23.20 mills.

Southington faced a similar situation about a decade ago when it relocated its police sta­tion from Main Street to Lazy Lane, a less developed section of town. The town purchased a 7.4-acre parcel there for about $132,000 in 1998, then built a 27,000-square-foot building on the site for around $6 million. Town Manager John Weich­sel said it proved more cost-ef­fective to build on Lazy Lane and the town determined it did not need a police facility in the downtown area.

“The location of a police de­partment is of no consequence. It can be in any part of the town,” Weichsel said Wednes­day. “The exact location is not important. It’s an administrative and communication center. The site where (the old station) used to be was a terrible site, it had terrible soils … There’s no reason to be in the center, and with (the Lazy Lane) property, we did acquire it at what we felt to be a reasonable price.”

Wallingford’s department has occupied its station, a former state armory that dates to the 1920s, since 1986. Police Chief Douglas Dortenzio has said that it’s nearing the end of its life and can no longer accom­modate police operations.

Dortenzio said the facility lacks a number of departmen­tal necessities, including ade­quate room for property and ev­idence storage, up to date video monitoring and forensic equip­ment, space for a women’s lock­er room and separate holding facilities for juveniles. In Janu­ary, a change in state law will no longer allow the department to house juveniles in adult holding cells.

“I don’t think it’s a question of how bad. I think it has to do more with the fact that here are services that I think people come to rely on … that we don’t provide,” Dortenzio said. “I don’t have the ability to provide them in this structure.”

Dortenzio, who has been chief for 19 years, acknowl­edged the steep price of a new station, but said a functioning police department is a question of a community’s “value sys­tems.”

“From my perspective, set­ting municipal budgets has more to do with what a com­munity’s goals are for the future and what their value systems are,” Dortenzio said. “If you think that the quality of life in town is in many ways preserved by law enforcement services in the community, then we need to start preparing for this.”