Printed From Acorn-Online.com
Darien Times
Jan 14, 2008

A new police station is more than two years away, but the Police Department Building Committee has begun the process of designing the facility in hopes that it can get a shovel in the ground in September.

George Reilly, committee chairman, updated the Board of Selectmen on its progress at the selectmen meeting Monday night.

“We are well into the design development phase, the documents are being produced,” Reilly said. “We expect them by the end of the month or the beginning of February.”

Reilly also said they are looking at a geo-thermal design and its economic impact on the project.

“We want to make this as green a facility as possible.”

The committee hopes to complete the design work soon, so it can seek funding for construction in March or April, begin construction in September and finish the project in the spring of 2010.

The total cost of the project is estimated at about $15 million.

The cost estimate involves hard costs, for about $11 million, soft costs, for about $2 million and contingency, or abatement costs, making up the rest.

A space-needs assessment last year found the Darien police need a 36,400 square-foot building; the department currently operates in a 19,000 square-foot space.

The current main floor houses the communications room, records, a public waiting room, holding cells, evidence and garages.

The remodeled part of the main floor would feature a larger communications/dispatch room, public waiting area with bathrooms, records rooms, evidence storage, holding cells and interview rooms.

The addition to the main level would be used for vehicle storage and maintenance, along with other storage.

The current upper level of the department is made up of offices, an exercise room, lounge, lockers and an interview room. The new upper level would add more offices, conference rooms, training/meeting room, reconfigured locker rooms, storage, lunch room, clerical rooms and the new indoor shooting range.

Brian Humes is the head architect for the project. He works with Jacunski Humes Architects of Newington, which designed the schematics and specializes in police stations. The firm has designed police and fire stations across Connecticut and Massachusetts.

E-mail Darien Times reporter Austin Amoroso at aamoroso@darientimes.com.



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