Thursday, Jul. 03, 2008

Police station expansion moves forward

The first phase to renovate and expand the Olathe Police Department’s headquarters is moving forward.

City councilmembers approved Turner Construction on Tuesday as the project’s construction manager. Hoefer Wysocki Architects was approved two weeks ago to provide design services.

City Engineer Mary Jaeger said the agreement with the contractor and architect would allow them to work together with the city on the design-build-type project.

The partnership will allow the city to get the best product for the $16 million first phase approved as part of the 2008 to 2012 Capital Improvements Program budget, Jaeger said.

“We just have no space,” Police Chief Janet Thiessen said of the station at 501 E. 56 Highway.

She said the department has been busting at the seams for some time. Its investigations division has been on Cherry Street in downtown Olathe for several years, and the traffic unit has been operating from Olathe Fire Station No. 6.

Preliminary estimates indicated that the expansion would double the size of the existing 32,000-square-foot facility, but Jaeger said the size would be determined by HWA and Turner based on needs and available funding.

“I believe we’ll work toward getting as much space as possible with the project funds we now have available to make it work,” she said.

The expansion was identified as part of a 2000 master plan by HWA, which determined the needs of the fire administration building, municipal court and police headquarters. The fire building and municipal court already have been renovated.

The master plan concluded that to meet the department’s future needs, the police headquarters would need to be 120,000 square feet. Because the city doesn’t have funding to expand the headquarters as the master plan intended, it will be completed in phases.

Thiessen said she anticipates the next phase occurring no earlier than 2015. She said a number of projects have come before the city that need capital improvement dollars to meet the needs of the city’s rapid growth.

There’s just not enough money to do everything right now, Thiessen said.

Councilmembers, when approving the CIP in December 2007, opted against dedicating more funding to increase the size of the expansion, which would have only slightly added to the overall square footage.

Prior to construction, which is scheduled to begin in early 2009, $2 million of the $16 million dedicated for the project will be used to renovate the current building. Jaeger said that included maintenance to the foundation, roof and heating and air-conditioning system.

Completion of the expansion is scheduled for summer 2010. At that time, the city will examine additional phases based on the needs of the department, Jaeger said.

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