NEW POLICE STATION SET TO BE BUILT
Leominster breaks ground on facility ‘built for the future’
LEOMINSTER After three days of a nor’easter ravaging the state with wind and rain, the sun broke through just long enough to allow for a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday for the long-awaited and highly anticipated construction of a new police station.
At the ceremony was the Police Station Building Committee, police officers, contractors, and local and state officials, including state Sen. John Cronin, D-Lunenburg.
Mayor Dean Mazzarella led the short ceremony, offering gratitude to the committee, City Council and the contractors responsible for making the project possible, and when asked about the new station, his face lit up with excitement.
“It’s built for the future,” Mazzarella said. “That’s in terms of the environment, its sustainability, but it’s also built for the future in terms of technology. We’ve only seen a small slice of what technology can do in law enforcement.”
Mazzarella said all the offices will be located around the perimeter of the station and as such will reduce the need for light, and the new building will also capable of handling solar power. On the emerging technology front, Mazzarella said they were mindful of “keeping data” and “cross-checking data.”
The estimated $25 million project has been well over two decades in the making. Mazzarella wanted to remind taxpayers that there will be no tax increase through an override or debt exclusion to pay for it. Kaestle Boos Associates Inc. designed the 30,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility that will feature a lot more space and electronic kiosks in the lobby that will enable people to selffile and request reports.
Police Chief Aaron Kennedy said the entire police department is eagerly anticipating the new station, which is slated to be completed sometime next year.
“It’s great to see that it’s happening,” Kennedy said. “I never would have thought, 27 years on the job and this late in my career, I’d get to see it but it’s happening and we’re excited. And it’s good for the department because the department is so young now.”
The new station will be locat
‘It’s great to see that it’s happening. I never would have thought, 27 years on the job and this late in my career, I’d get to see it but it’s happening and we’re excited.’ – Aaron Kennedy, Leominster Police chief
ed downtown at 116 Central St. While there were some delays leading up to the groundbreaking and other location options, the city and committee worked together to move the proj
ect along, acquiring plots of land in the Central Street area for the project and demolishing houses, an old school, and a warehouse last June to clear the site.
Having the station located downtown was a point the committee wasn’t willing to compromise on, despite other parcels being available, Mazzarella said, and its location was chosen with the community in mind.
“There were other sites, but we really, really wanted to keep this idea close to downtown,” Mazzarella said. “Leominster’s police station for some reason — people come in to get forms, to ask questions — it’s a busy place. And we’ve seen other police departments that find a piece of land like ‘oh yeah, we’ll put it here,’ but they lose connection to the town and its people. So we really wanted to try to keep it close to the downtown, walkable and close.”
Police Capt. John Fraher emphasized that the new police headquarters will be a place for the community.
“I think the groundbreaking itself was a great ceremony,” he said. “It was very nice that they let everyone take part because the new police station really is for the community and it needs to be represented in a way that people feel welcome coming forward and that’s what we want.”
Fraher said the current police headquarters on Church Street is “not great for victims, complainants and witnesses.”
“There is very little room, very little privacy,” he said. “We want (people) to have a place where they can come to seek help and feel safe.”