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It's back to drawing board for police station
(by Barbara Christian - November 18, 2009)
It's back to drawing board for police station
By BARBARA CHRISTIAN
The committee for a new police station in Chagrin Falls is deciding what to do after voters turned down the $4.5 million bond issue for a second time this year.
The village also must decide what can be done with money from a 0.06-mill operating levy that voters approved on Nov. 3. The funds were earmarked for maintenance of a new police station.
Mayor Thomas Brick said a number of issues have been identified as keys toward a decision about a new police building. "The fact remains we still have an inadequate and unsafe police station. It's not getting better, and something has to be done," he said.
Mr. Brick said the village should find out why the operating levy passed and the bond issue failed. He said there has been discussion about hiring a market-research or polling company to look into it.
Without spending more money on detailed plans, he said the administration and council also may ask architect David King if there is anything more he can do to decrease the size and cost of the police station design.
"Right now we have more questions than we have answers," Mr. Brick said.
The village also wants to know if it is to receive a federal communications grant for equipment for the new police station. Village officials are confident they will get the grant, but with failure of the bond issue, they need to know what they can do with it, he said.
Contingent on the new police station is a second federal grant for $450,000 that the fire department has obtained. It is to be used for another piece of equipment and more room for firefighters, Me. Brick said.
That space was to have been found in the old police station once it was vacated. Conditions and time limits on that grant are unknown, he said.
Mr. Brick said, when it comes to the future of the police station, he's sure of one thing. "We are going to have a lot of council meetings and many more town meetings," he said.
Also a sure thing, he said, is that there will be no special elections and no police station issue on the May ballot.
Besides the impact on the fire department's plans, the loss of the police station bond issue also has created a domino effect on the village's 25-year facilities plan. It includes the future of Village Hall departments, which would have moved into part of the old police station.
The need for storage space can be addressed immediately and without much cost by using the Cleveland Street Armory, Mr. Brick said.
The village also is exploring the possibility of enlarging the current police station and expanding it into the attached Village Hall, then moving village departments and employees to another place, which has not been identified.
Mr. Brick said expanding the police station into Village Hall may not be possible or economical because of code specifications and other requirements, including handicap access and the requirement for police facilities to be able to withstand hurricane-strength winds.
Chagrin Falls Police Chief James Brosius blamed the defeat on "misinformation and made-up information," some of which turned up in letters to local newspapers.
He said, while he was disappointed at the vote, he was not disheartened or ready to retire as a result of the issue failing. "I am staying on until we get a new police station, if I have to build it myself," he said with a laugh.
During the campaign, Mr. Brosius said a resident asked how big his new office was going to be. "That person assumed I wanted a huge office," he said. "I don't know how large it will be because detailed drawings have not been done."
Mr. Brosius said he understands there is animosity among some people in all communities regarding their police departments. He said sometimes it's over a traffic ticket or some other grievance viewed as unjust.
Mr. Brosius said the men and women in his department "are all good people" who still think Chagrin Falls is a "good place to work, and they are committed to serving the community as they have always done."
A special council meeting was to have been held yesterday (Nov. 18) to begin determining why the bond issue was defeated and what can be done to get a different outcome next time.
Friends of the Chagrin Falls Police Committee co-chairman John O'Brien said members also want to find ways to make voters understand the police department's needs. He said he also wants to find out why voters defeated the bond issue before developing a communications strategy.
Committee co-chairman Scott Lax said he finds it ironic that the day after the police station bond issue failed, a "massacre" occurred on the military base at Fort Hood, Texas. He said it should remind everyone that police officers, even in the safest environments, are the ones who are willing to put their lives on the line every day.
Mr. Lax asked if something like that could happen in Chagrin Falls. "Fort Hood and Columbine and every other place where people assume they are safe should remind us all that our top priority should be our safety forces," he said, referring to the shootings at Columbine High School near Denver about 10 years ago.
"The Chagrin Falls Police Department is first rate," Mr. Lax said. "The idea that Chagrin Falls is somehow not affected by a dangerous and violent society and that our department should work in a facility that is below substandard is not just dangerous, but it is a very serious misimpression."
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