Plans Progressing for a New Police Station in Saratoga Springs
SARATOGA SPRINGS —The development of a new city police station inched forward toward reality this week with the City Council’s approval to sign a contract addendum with LaBella Associates of Rochester at a cost of $214,500.
The council had approved $500,000 in the Capital Budget plan for use in 2025 to initiate designs for a new public safety facility.
“There are three phases,” Public Safety Commissioner Tim Coll explained to the council during its April 1 meeting. “The first is the basic drawings to make sure it will fit on the site. The second phase – which we’re entering now – is the schematic design phase, and the third phase would be the construction documents. “
The overall estimated cost for the new facility is approximately $25 million. It will be sited on city-owned land behind City Hall that is currently used as a parking lot by city employees. The lot had previously been the focus of numerous design plans during the past several decades – a cinema, a 500-car parking garage and a public safety facility, among them.
The new facility, at approximately 30,000 square feet, is slated to include a sally port and a walkway to transport prisoners directly to City Hall and eliminate their being transported through pedestrian traffic, as is currently the case. A connector bridge is anticipated to extend over Maple Avenue to adjoin the facility with City Hall – where the courts are located, not dissimilar to the connector bridge atop Maple Avenue a few blocks north that connects the parking garage with the Saratoga Springs City Center.
The police department’s current home is in the basement of City Hall. It has served as its headquarters for nearly 150 years. Feasibility studies for the development of a new public safety facility in the city date to the mid-1970s, and more than a half-dozen reports were conducted during the decades that have followed.
In 2006, a committee was formed to help develop a new station and the City Council seated at the time explored multiple proposals for a new facility, but no majority approval could be secured for any of the plans. Subsequently no action was taken. Renovations and upgrades have been made to City Hall in the time since, but the restrictive space of the current police department is less than ideal, officials say.
Commissioner Coll said the public safety department is anticipating making a public presentation to the council regarding the proposal status in the coming weeks, and Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi is anticipating staging a subsequent presentation to be made by financial advisors who will explain to the council the finances and timing involved in funding the $25 million station.
The council is in agreement that a new station is needed. Coll said Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner is working to attempt to secure some of the funding for the project, although it is not currently known whether such funding will be available.