The Municipal Building Committee voted to hire the architectural firm Jacunski Humes, of Berlin, to find a good site and draw up plans for a . The firm will charge $6,500.
Jacunski Humes Architects wrote wrote that they specialize in police facility design and said they are currently working on the Norwich and Stonington Police facilites and listed 40 police stations the have completed in Connecticut.
The Town of Ledyard is asking the firm to find the best place for a police facility that will be approximately 7,000 square feet. Add-ons like a sally port (a secured entryway for moving prisoners in and out of a facility), holding cells and an evidence room have all been discussed but no firm plans are in place to have them installed.
The current police department has been deemed inadequate due to the cost of needed repairs to their heating and cooling system and the building floods after heavy rains.
The Town of Ledyard will pay a lump sum for an assessment of existing buildings and proposed sites, schematic designs, a code review and conceptual drawings.
There was some discussion about where to put the station and finally Mayor John Rodolico and members of the commission came to these three choices:
- The old Ledyard Firehouse at 737 Colonel Ledyard Highway
- The old town garage located at 47 Iron Street
- Town owned land on Al Clark Drive near the transfer station and public works garage.
- The former Gales Ferry School was thrown in as an alternate site to those listed above.
However, the old firehouse is on 1-acre piece of land and some members agreed that parking could be an issue for the 20-plus department. They also said that the old town garage site might be too contaminated.
It his hoped that the and police station go to referendum together.
