GREENFIELD — Residents were able to see and hear about the proposed public safety complex on Main and Wells streets, but the cost of such a project is still unclear.
The proposal was presented to residents during a public safety commission meeting last night, but Mayor William Martin could not give a firm cost of what it would cost the city to move services to one location.
“As of this point, we are very, very close,” Martin said of a lease agreement for the building, but no formal offer has been completed.
Martin said he is still in negotiations with the owners of the buildings, Dyer Investment Company LLC. He said he expects the lease to extend over 30 years and be between $800,000 to $950,000, but could not confirm a total.
The proposal would include building a two-story complex about 50,000 square feet that would house police, fire and dispatch departments for the city.
The building would include roughly 20,000 square feet for the fire department along Wells Street, about 15,000 square feet for police on Main Street and additional space on the second floor for dispatch and emergency operations, said Robyn Provost, representative for the developer Dyer Investment.
The building would have an additional 10,000 square feet of basement space, with a part being used for secure police parking, she said.
In order to begin construction, the current buildings at Main and Wells streets would need to be demolished, Provost said.
Martin said a total could be settled on within the next 30 to 60 days and presented to City Council, which would need to approve the lease if the city were to move forward with the project.
Any contract beyond three years requires council approval.
If it is approved, Martin said construction and relocation of emergency services to the building could happen in 18 to 24 months.
Martin said funding for the lease could be paid for by the regionalization of dispatch services because the state would reportedly take on and pay for Greenfield’s dispatch. The city has been in discussions with the state about the option, which would bring in the dispatching of various police and fire services in the county and state police.
Martin said the department costs about $823,000 a year in the budget, which could cover the low end estimate of the lease.
However, the state taking on Greenfield’s dispatch is not a certainty. To that, Martin said the city would add $1 million to its annual budget to pay for the lease.
The public safety complex is a key component to the city’s new library construction. If the complex is completed the fire department moves to the Wells Street location and it leaves its current Main Street location, which is in the footprint of the proposed library.
While the cost is being decided, both Police Chief Robert Haigh and Fire Chief Robert Strahan admitted that their departments are in need of either new buildings or costly upgrades to their existing ones.
Fire Chief Robert Strahan said his department’s building’s biggest deficiency is its apparatus floor, which is where the department vehicles and other equipment is kept.
He said the space makes it difficult to work on the vehicles and there is no room to add equipment. He also said the space limits what new apparatuses can be bought because of size restrictions.
“To fix that…would be very, very expensive to do,” Strahan said.
Strahan said the building has no fire protection and needs major repairs of the brick walls of the building. Additional concerns included no water and oil separator at the station, which means any contaminated water from the engines goes directly into the city’s sewer system.
He estimated the cost to address these and other issues between $7 million and $11 million.
“Our building is in need of repair, and more importantly in need of replacement,” Strahan said.
Police Chief Robert Haigh said his department’s building on High Street needs several upgrades as well.
Haigh said the building has inefficient air conditioning and heating. This is critical because some of the department’s equipment and the evidence storage room must have climate control.
The building has several safety issues as well, he said. “The most dangerous time for our officers” is when they bring those arrested in and out of the building Haigh said, due to how confined the areas are that the arrestee and officer must go through.
Haigh said there are “potential suicide risks with our cells,” due to issues with the sink and water shut-offs in them, though the cells were “grandfathered in.”
The building has cramped space for dispatchers, Haigh said, and there are privacy concerns because of how people who want to talk to police have to enter through the public area of the station.
Haigh did not have an estimated cost for upgrades, but said Chicopee, which upgraded its police department building, spent about $3 million to $5 million and Greenfield would cost more than that.