New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
Old Ansonia police station could be used for housing department
ANSONIA — The former police station on 2 Elm St. could once again be a bustling center of activity.
The difference, though, is that the building’s new inhabitants could be handing out housing vouchers instead of tickets, according to Ansonia Housing Authority Executive Director Steve Nanko.
“After an extensive search for a new office, the Ansonia Housing Authority is in negotiations with the City of Ansonia regarding leasing the former Ansonia police building located at 2 Elm Street, Ansonia,” Nanko said.
The former police station has been unoccupied for a year since the department moved to its new location on Main Street. While negotiations are still ongoing, both the city and the housing authority say it is a good fit, citing more parking spaces and its accessibility to residents, many of which don’t have reliable private transportation.
Economic Development Director Sheila O’Malley said the station was in poor shape but has received some maintenance.
“We did rectify the basement of the police station,” she said. “We did put some money into that. Windows, the generator. We made repairs because we had referendum money to do some renovations.”
Corporation Counsel John Marini said the Board of Aldermen could approve on the lease in December. Marini said the space was previously considered for the Board of Education, but there had been no formal conversations with the board.
Nanko said the space is accessible and it has ramps for wheelchair use located on the side of the building.
“The AHA office has to be accommodating to any individual with disabilities, and the former Ansonia police building meets Section 504, handicapped compliance,” he said.
Nanko said the AHA had been reviewing other vacant office spaces, such as 219 Division St. but that has since been sold. The other option would be to move to 230 Beaver St., he said. But that space is in a less convenient location and the authority deemed it too small.
The AHA is currently located at 307 Main St. The organization leases its space and while the area is close to the Metro North train station and to a bus line, Nanko said it’s hard to find parking on Main Street. Plus, the area has a two-hour limit for on-street parking.
But while the proposed former police station is advantageous to cars, Nanko said the new space also needs to be accessible for people who don’t drive.
“It is also important that the AHA office is within public transportation, in that many residents do not own cars and rely on buses to come to the office,” Nanko said.
The city is served by one CT Transit bus line, the 255 bus that travels from New Haven to Seymour. But it doesn’t stop close to the old police station and mainly runs on Main Street with a stop on Division Street. Residents who want to travel to 2 Elm Street can also rely on the Valley Transit District, which can schedule a trip in advance.
Tenants using a housing voucher or living in public housing also have the option to log in to the AHA tenant portal to pay rent, submit requests for maintenance, check their balances and other requests. Landlords participating in the program can go online for their own needs such as inspections.
If the city’s Board of Aldermen approve the deal, the AHA will occupy a space that still has reminders of its past as a school and as a home for Ansonia’s police.
While the AHA is eager to move to a new home, the old station is still functionally a police station. The jail cells, with their white-painted metal bars rather than more modern facilities, are still there. So is a sign stating the police station is protected against bacteria and viruses, erected during the COVID 19 lockdown, remains next to the entrance.
Before the police moved in, the station itself was a former school. The Larkin School was the former occupier of the space until 1980 when the police department moved in. The school used to have a front porch and a turret but those were removed. The only reminders of its past is the words “public school” carved into stone close to the roof at the front of the building and a plaque memorializing Annie Larkin, the first principal of the school. Offices and holding cells occupy the spaces that formerly served as classrooms.
By the early 2010s, the police had outgrown the building, which had also fallen into a state of disrepair. O’Malley said if the AHA gets the go ahead, they will find that the space’s offices have been renovated. But Marini said that’s still up to the aldermen. “I believe that’s very possible but not sure how aldermen will act on that,” Marini said.