Norwich City Council delays action on new police station
— A last-minute amendment to a proposed $44.7 million bonding ordinance to build a new police station forced the City Council to delay a vote Monday to approve the ordinance and place it on the Nov. 7 ballot for a referendum.
The council now must act at its Sept. 5 meeting on the proposal, two days before the state deadline for placing items on the referendum ballot.
State Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, whose district includes Norwich, told the City Council at the start of Monday’s council meeting that all Norwich state legislators pledge to support a request for $10 million in state funding toward the police station. State Rep. Derell Wilson, D-Norwich, a former member of the police station study committee 10 years ago, echoed her position.
In response, during council discussion, Alderwoman Stacy Gould amended the bonding ordinance to include language that the total projected $44.75 million cost include any state or federal grants the city might obtain to support the project. The council adopted the amendment, and the council will hold a public hearing on the amended ordinance Sept. 5 prior to a vote to send the item to referendum.
At Monday’s public hearing, more than two dozen residents, business owners, current and former police officers, volunteer police chaplains and city officials spoke in favor of building a new police station, or at least in favor of putting the issue to the voters.
Those in favor pleaded with city leaders to educate the public on why they are asking city taxpayers to bond $44.75 million for a new station.
Anthony Holland, president Norwich NAACP branch, implored the council to support the measure.
“It’s long overdue,” Holland said. “It’s definitely needed. It’s time to invest in the city of Norwich.”
Two volunteer police chaplains described how the cramped 43-year-old current building interferes with daily operations. The building has no space for private interviews between police and the public or even between chaplains wishing to speak confidentially with officers.
“We’re asking for more diversity,” Chaplain Charles Tyree said. “However, our building impedes our ability to do that. We have a female officer about to graduate from the academy, and she will not have a locker. It’s a bad signal that other departments welcome new staff with open arms in a great facility with places where they have privacy.”
The department has 11 female officers, plus the incoming officer. Dennis Jenkins, who served on the police station study committee in 2013, said the female officers now share space with a police lieutenant, due to lack of locker room space.
Retired former police Chief Louis Fusaro said the station at 70 Thames St. was too small on the day it opened.
Speakers said the building lacks parking, space for community meetings or public events and space for interviews between officers and the public. The facility has outdated prisoner transport and holding facilities that present safety hazards for both prisoners and officers, speakers said.
Voters in 2012 soundly rejected a $33 million plan to convert the former Sears building downtown into a police station. Three years later, city leaders rejected bids from private developers for a leased police headquarters.
The proposal does not include a proposed location. Police Chief Patrick Daley said last week that city officials will review locations previously identified in the study of possible sites, but he could not discuss specifics, as some sites could be privately owned.
The $44.75 million also would include potential property acquisition and demolition costs.
David Winkler, a member of the police station study committee, said the need for the council to launch a public education campaign prior to the referendum is as important as the proposed building plan. Winkler said he was asked repeatedly why the city has to spend so much on a new station and why the current building could not be expanded — an option considered and rejected by the committee.