Study to determine longterm facility needs for Fayetteville Police Department

NWA Democrat-Gazette/DAVID GOTTSCHALK Sgt. Anthony Murphy, with the city of Fayetteville Police Department, reviews Wednesday the Evidence Lab at the station in Fayetteville. The City Council on Tuesday approved a $19,000 contract with Dewberry Architects to update the Police Department's 2005 space assessment.
NWA Democrat-Gazette/DAVID GOTTSCHALK Sgt. Anthony Murphy, with the city of Fayetteville Police Department, reviews Wednesday the Evidence Lab at the station in Fayetteville. The City Council on Tuesday approved a $19,000 contract with Dewberry Architects to update the Police Department's 2005 space assessment.

FAYETTEVILLE -- The Police Department needs to know what it needs space-wise in order to get on the list of projects for a potential bond renewal question next year.

The City Council on Tuesday OK'd a $19,900 contract with Dewberry Architects in Elgin, Ill., to lead the facilities needs and space assessment study. It will update a similar 2005 report that determined police officers needed more room to operate out of what was then a 22,200-square-foot headquarters on Rock Street.

Study compensation

The scope of work included in the contract with Dewberry Architects will be completed for an amount not to exceed $19,900. The anticipated fee breakdown is as follows:

• A cost estimate from subcontractor Wooldridge Consulting Services will make up about $1,500.

• Travel expenses expected not to exceed $2,400.

• About $16,000 for the remainder of the study.

Source: Dewberry Architects

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The move comes as departments heads, council members and administrators are compiling a list of capital projects to present to voters for a possible bond renewal. The city's 1 percent sales tax was approved by voters in 2006 and generated $110 million improving the city's wastewater and transportation systems. Administrators plan to pay off that debt by next year.

The station in 2010 added about 4,800 square feet when the District Court and City Prosecutor's Office moved out of the building at 100 W. Rock St. and went next door to Church Avenue. Half the training room was converted into offices a few months ago. Some spaces have become storage. Records and Information Technology personnel work out of a former storage space. There's a makeshift equipment closet next to the soda machine by a stairwell. Officers have to get creative with where to put all their gear in the locker room.

Big pieces of evidence are stored at an undisclosed location across town. Processing smaller pieces of evidence, such as clothing or drugs, can get tight with limited surface area, especially involving cases such as homicides, Sgt. Anthony Murphy said. The parking lot, shared with nearby businesses, is barely enough to handle the patrol cars that come in and out, let alone the SWAT vehicles that have to be kept off-site.

Police Chief Greg Tabor said having everything in one place would make operations far more efficient.

"With court moving out, it did give us a little breathing room," he said. "But obviously we're running over at the seams again now. We've remodeled and remodeled and remodeled and there's just nothing else to do."

The 2005 report estimated the Police Department needed 43,400 square feet to function properly at the time and would need 55,000 square feet by 2025. The current square footage is just more than 27,000 square feet.

For comparison, Bentonville's 25,000-square-foot police station at 908 S.E. 14th St. was built in 1996 for about $2.1 million. Plans are being finalized for a 21,600-square-foot 911 Center and Criminal Investigation Division building south of the station. The $8 million project will be paid for through a combination of remaining bond money and savings.

Bentonville, with a population of just more than half of Fayetteville's, has 77 sworn officers with a total of 109 employees at its Police Department. Fayetteville has 129 officers and 180 total employees.

"We conducted an internal review and identified a need for more physical space that could support the city's needs and subsequent personnel additions," Officer Gene Page said. "Our department has more than doubled in size since the construction of the existing building."

The 48,000-square-foot Rogers Police Department and courts building finished construction in 1999. The project cost about $6.5 million including the land purchase at 1905 S. Dixieland Road, about 4 miles southwest of City Hall.

Rogers spokesman Ben Cline said expanding the Police Department is on the city's radar but no consultants have been hired. Tentative plans include adding a building to the southeast corner of the property that would serve as a dispatch center, vehicle storage space and additional training area to accommodate the department's 107 officers and 147 total employees, he said.

About $41 million of a $200 million bond issue Springdale voters approved in February will pay for a criminal justice center for police and courts and to renovate City Hall. The new 77,000-square-foot criminal justice complex will be on Huntsville Avenue north of the existing building. The administration building was renovated and expanded in 1995 and houses the Police Department, City Attorney's Office, District Court, various city departments and the Mayor's Office within its 12,000 square feet. Springdale has 146 sworn officers and 199 total Police Department employees.

Jack Rinchich with the National Association of Chiefs of Police said having an antiquated police station is a national problem. Policing itself has changed over the decades, especially since Sept. 11, 2001, but many buildings have remained the same, he said.

"I've seen the best and I've seen the worst and everything in between," Rinchich said. "I've gone to some stations where it's like walking back 80 years in time. Then I've also been in ultra-modern stations that had everything."

The addition of precincts is no longer reserved to big cities, Rinchich said. Renovating buildings in different parts of a city for police use can relieve some of the crunch at a lower cost than building a new station outright, he said. It also can help with response capability, he said.

Tabor said he would prefer to have one station for all of the department's needs. Motorcycle and bicycle officers on the north side of town have a spot at the Northwest Arkansas Mall, but the city probably isn't big enough to warrant a full-on substation, he said.

Anytime Tabor sees a 5- to 10-acre piece of land go up for sale and starts thinking about it, he said. Tracts like that don't stay open for long in Fayetteville, Tabor said.

"It's been very difficult to find what we thought was that perfect piece of property," he said.

A previous proposal from 2005 to move the police, prosecutor and district court to the former Tyson Mexican Original building at Huntsville and Happy Hollow roads never came to fruition. Kum & Go bought the northeast corner of the property in 2013 but hasn't built anything on it. A fire station went on the southwest corner. The city owns the rest of the parcel, which remains vacant.

Mayor Lioneld Jordan, who served on the City Council at the time, said the need for a new wastewater treatment facility, among other factors, derailed the plan.

A new police headquarters with an estimated price tag of $36.3 million has sat on the city's list of unfunded capital projects ever since.

An updated needs assessment will inform the administration and council on what to present to voters for a bond renewal question, Jordan said.

Jordan said he hopes to have a solid list of citywide projects prioritized by this fall, with a vote ready by next year.

"It's been 13 years since we've done a study," he said. "Things change and we just have to see where everything is."

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NWA Democrat-Gazette/DAVID GOTTSCHALK Andy Shobe, IT Manager with the city of Fayetteville Police Department, pulls up Wednesday an inventory of department equipment in his office at the station in Fayetteville.

NW News on 04/08/2018

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