Council OKs $36M for police station
EL CENTRO — The El Centro City Council recently authorized the allocation of $36 million in Measure L bond proceeds to build a new El Centro Police Department station.
The long-awaited project is expected to go out to bid in the coming months, with groundbreaking for the two-story headquarters projected for January 2021.
The entire project, which will include a parking structure and a separate two- story building for support services and shooting range, is expected to be completed by January 2022.
The $36 million project is scaled down version of a previously considered $42 million police station, which would’ve included a three-story headquarters, and two-story building for support services.
“We have to live within our means and we have to build something that is going to be sustainable with the dollars that we have,” said Councilwoman Cheryl Viegas-Walker during the council’s Feb. 5 meeting.
The project’s costs were reduced by optimizing the selected design’s space and limiting the shooting range’s amenities, said Jim McClaren, senior principal with McClaren, Wilson and Lawrie Inc., who was hired as a consultant for the project.
The headquarter’s first floor will include a public entrance via Main Street, while the second floor will be occupied by the department’s administration, investigators and public safety dispatchers.
The support building’s first floor will be occupied by an evidence room, small laboratory, space for the department’s K- 9s, and animal control officers, but no animals. Its second floor will solely consist of space for an indoor shooting range.
The existing police station will be demolished to make way for the support services building during a later phase of the project, after the headquarters has been built and occupied, McLaren said.
During the meeting, Mayor Efrain Silva asked about the need for a shooting range, and was told by police Chief Brian Johnson that it would provide an added convenience for officers who typically travel to Calipatria State Prison to perform mandated firearm qualification tests.
The inclusion of a shooting range at the new station would eliminate officers’ travel time to and from Calipatria, and could potentially allow for the use of patrol cars inside to practice tactical moves as well, Johnson said.
Additionally, the county Sheriff’s Office and Imperial Valley College’s police academy students have expressed an interest in using the planned facility, possibly allowing the city to recoup some of its costs, Johnson said.
“It becomes money well spent over the long-term in savings and costs for the logistics to getting our people qualified,” Johnson said.
The existing police station was built in 1948 and was meant to accommodate 26 people, or about a third of its current number of personnel. In 1970, the station expanded with the addition of the former Chamber of Commerce building, city officials said.
The $36 million for the project will come from the planned sale of about $56 million in bonds financed by the proceeds of Measure P, the half-cent sales tax increase voters approved in 2016.
The remaining monies generated by the anticipated sale of bonds, $20 million, will go toward the construction of a new public library.
During the council’s Feb. 5 meeting, city officials anticipated that annual bond debt payments would be about $3.5 million. The city receives about $5.5 million in Measure P sales tax proceeds annually.
City officials have elected to somewhat limit the monetary amount of its planned bond sale so that the debt payment would not completely exhaust the city’s annual Measure P proceeds.
Finance Department Director Richard Romero told the council that the remaining $2 million in Measure P proceeds left after the debt payment could potentially be used to pay for the new facilities’ maintenance and operations costs.
City Manager Marcela Piedra also indicated that the additional money needed to operate the library and police facilities had yet to be identified.
Councilman Tomas Oliva said he had some concerns with the planned project’s potential impact to the city’s general fund. Last year, the city had to subsidize the recently opened Aquatic Center with $1.2 million, when maintenance and operations costs exceeded projections and revenue fell short of anticipated levels.
“My concern is that we’re going to face the same thing with this,” Oliva
said.
The planned project represents a highlight of the eight and a half years that Councilman Jason Jackson has served on the council, aside from the Veteran’s Memorial built at Bucklin Park in late 2016, he said.
It and the planned public library project are also a reflection of the trust the citizenry has placed in city staff and the council to use the Measure P funds appropriately, Jackson said.
Since December, the city has generated about $13.8 million in Measure P sales tax revenue, of which about $9.7 million has been committed for capital projects, a city official said.
“We are delivering to our residents what we promised we would,” he said during the Feb. 5 meeting.
All four council members present for the meeting voted unanimously to authorize the use of the funds for the project. Councilman Edgard Garcia was absent from the Feb. 5 meeting.