At a City Council Conference meeting on Monday night, City Manager Dr. Martin Moore told City Council that a new police headquarters is about five years away.
“We are planning for the worse case scenario,” says Moore.
Moore recommended putting $175,000 into a Facilities Reserve Fund, which currently has a balance of $123,400. The funds will be used to address the heating, wiring, plumbing and structural work needed at the current police headquarters.
The new police facility will cost between $6-$8 million and be paid for with a mix of reserves and municipal bonding.
5th Ward City Councilperson Kathy Briggs asked if the police were really going to be in the current building for five more years. The building is over 150 years old and has infrastructure problems.
“Matt Worth with Public Works will be coming back with a preliminary recommendation from GHD Construction dealing with the existing building, we won’t know for sure until that report,” Moore responded.
According to Council President Eugene Jankowski, the new police headquarters will be located on City owned property which will save on the cost of having to purchase property.
At this time Jankowski could only say that the property is located in the central area of the city.
Jankowski says over the next two years the City will be able to clear out some debt and after paying that debt off will make way for the planning, pre-design and building process to begin within the next 2-3 years.
In the meantime, the 150-year-old building at 10 West Main Street, originally the Brisbane Mansion, is in need of repairs and a plan for what will happen with it after the police department vacates the structure.
The discussion about a new police headquarters has been ongoing for some time. In 2014, Chief Shawn Heubusch held a two hour tour of the current building and a task force was created to determine a location for a new police headquarters. Since then there have been several discussions on a location, but until today no solutions.
In the Public Comments section of the meeting, the subject of garbage pick up schedules for vendors came up and several companies have subsequently met with the City Manager to create a schedule for pick up days to avoid garbage collection everyday.
Also on the agenda was a presentation of the 2018/19 audit report by Laura Landers of Freed Maxick, upgrades to street lights in four areas of the city, a FEMA grant amendment for the City of Batavia Fire Department and a discussion on the lease agreement with the Batavia Players Theatre Company.