GREENWICH - Recent talk from the RTM of putting the brakes on the new public safety complex to consider trying to save money by building it elsewhere is nothing new, say police officers and firefighters.
"They've been talking about a new station since I got here," said police Lt. Richard Cochran, a 25-year veteran of the force. "It's a shame that we work here, because it's a shambles. It's too hot or too cold . . . it's dark and moldy."
Sgt. Kraig Gray said that even more than the condition of the station, officers bemoan the lack of modern features such as sally ports, which are fortified entrances for taking prisoners in or out of a building.
"It's a running joke here that we're getting a new building," said Gray, a 14-year veteran. "Nobody knows why it's taken so long to get a new building."
Though the current project to build a police/fire/ambulance complex is already under way, Randall Huffman, head of the RTM Budget Overview Committee and a leading proponent of looking at other options, said he will present a resolution to the RTM in January asking the town to evaluate an alternate plan.
The continuing plan spearheaded by First Selectman Jim Lash calls for the existing police department and fire administration buildings to be torn down, and one large complex to be built in their place that would house the police and fire departments and the ambulance service.
The alternate plan Huffman backs would leave the fire administration building untouched, sell the land the police department sits on, build a new police building where the municipal garage is now next to Town Hall, and then build an underground parking lot beneath Havemeyer Field.
The alternate plan could be as much as $15 million to $20 million cheaper than the ongoing plan, Huffman said.
"We expect the town to do the same kind of evaluation they would do for any other major proposal," Huffman said of the alternate plan.
Lash said he estimates the alternate proposal would not create any savings, because the subterranean parking garage under Havemeyer Field would reach $25 million to $40 million by itself.
"There is a problem because the longer we delay the project the more the cost is going to increase," Lash said of Huffman's plan to ask for an evaluation of the alternate proposal.
Since 2000 the town has analyzed more than a dozen sites for a police station or public safety complex, including the Food Emporium on West Putnam Avenue, several parking lots, and corporate offices including the UST Inc. Building at 100 W. Putnam Ave., and The Coca Cola Bottling Co. of New York at 20 Horseneck Lane, before choosing the current site and concept.
Sites that town officials have advocated for over the past decade have been rejected on various factors, including projected cost, real or anticipated community opposition, or expected problems in constructing or renovating a station.
The idea of a police station at the Armory site on Mason Street was a no-go because the building would have to have been five stories tall to provide enough space, according to a 2004 site selection study.
Another contender, the Havemeyer Building, which currently houses the Board of Education, is so old that it would have been too expensive to be renovated, a 2000 study said.
Yet another proposal to build a police station next to the Julian Curtiss School on East Elm Street was nixed by opposition from residents and the school's PTA.
Meanwhile the police department has remained split between two aging buildings, sharing one with the central fire station, and Greenwich Emergency Medical Service's headquarters is on King Street in the back country.
"I would hate for us to get back into the cycle of doing more studies while the project grows in cost," Chief James Walters said. "Plus, the first selectman is telling us this is affordable right now."
Or, as Sgt. Gray said, "We don't need another study to study what the study says."
Jim Syrotiak, deputy director for GEMS, said he would like to see the current project continue.
"There is certainly a need for better facilities and it is a great idea having the administration all together," he said.
Daniel Warzoha, the town's emergency operations management coordinator and retired fire chief, said the ongoing project is the best one because it would rebuild the fire building. The Police/Fire Administration Building, which also houses the central fire station, is substandard for modern firefighting, he said.
"It is designed to meet standards of the fire service of 1938, which have changed dramatically as the operations have increased," Warzoha said. "The size of the department and the trucks have increased and quite frankly the building is falling apart from the inside."
Lash said the top reasons to build the 68,900-square-foot complex at the site is large enough to build a spread out facility without ruining a neighborhood, and costs less than building a new police and central fire station separately.
"The town has missed opportunities in the past and that is something to keep in mind now," Lash said.
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