New police site tops list

BROOKINGS — The proposed new police station in Brookings should be located near the Dacotah Bank Center and not between two city schools, the Brookings City Council heard from City Manager Paul Briseno at a study session on Tuesday night, Jan. 20.

The new recommendation comes as a change from the initial staff advice to the council from this fall, when the top site identified was the lot between Brookings High School and Medary Elementary at the corner of Medary and Fifth Street South.

That advice was followed by a pair of community meetings in early December, which led to public feedback generally against that site.

“Going back in time into November, when we presented this site recommendation to you. In the past, we had public conversations, what we heard from the public is for us to really consider the impact on neighborhoods,” Briseno said by way of introduction to the city staff’s newer and more detailed report on the site choice.

Briseno and Police Chief Michael Drake presented the new findings to the council. With an emphasis on minimizing possible disruptions to neighborhoods, two possible sites near the event center on the east side of the interstate rose to the top of the staff’s suggestion list.

The presentation detailed 22 possible sites the city investigated over more than six years of planning for the new police station.

At the end of the presentation, Mayor Ope Niemeyer stated his preference for a site the city already owns, to the southeast corner of the current Dacotah Bank Center parking lot.

“I think you guys did a pretty good job here, giving us all our options. I personally like the south end of the parking lot of the Dacotah Bank Center. I think it doesn’t take away from our possibilities of other retail space, because we now have just got the ball rolling there,” Niemeyer said. “I like the idea that we would preserve that future retail space now that we might have something getting started there.”

The details
Along with possible disruption to neighborhoods, cost was a primary factor for both councilors and staff.

During the meeting, Briseno stressed that while most cities bond the entire cost of a new police or fire station, Brookings has been saving up. The City Council has put away more than $18 million toward an estimated cost of $25 million for the new police facility. There’s one big caveat, though. That $25 million does not include any money to buy new land.

So the sites that rose to the top of the rankings were all parcels the city already owns.

Briseno estimated the bond the council would have to take out to build the new police station would cost just under half a million per year from the council’s capital improvement plan.

Police concerns
Drake stressed that despite concerns at the November meetings, police response times were not likely to be affected by any particular location of the new police station.

“90% of their shifts should be spent in the streets, in the field, in these beats. So regardless of where we put the police facility, I can assure you, our police officers are always out there, always responding, and don’t always come back to respond from police headquarters,” Drake said.

There was also discussion of retaining a police substation in downtown Brookings — perhaps in the current police building after it is remodeled to accommodate a new fire station.

The fire chief confirmed to the mayor during the meeting that space could be made available in the building for that purpose.

Deputy Mayor Nick Wendell also brought up a potential substation during his question time, stressing that he received community feedback about people who are concerned about being able to access a new police station on the other side of the interstate.

Wendell said he was confident an accommodation could be made for those folks, and during his presentation, Drake volunteered that as few as one person during normal business hours could handle the vast majority of walk-in traffic the downtown police station now encounters.

Drake was confident his police force would make any decision from the council work.

“No matter where you all want to put our police department, I feel comfortable it will not affect our impact on traffic coming into and from headquarters, and it won’t impact our response time,” he said.

Next steps
While the council still said it wanted to hear any more feedback from the public, it sounded like the group was coalescing around the site south of the Dacotah Bank Center, with Niemeyer publicly endorsing it and Wendell saying the new recommendation addressed most of the concerns he had heard from the public.

Wendell also noted in a follow-up interview with the Beacon that the City may be in a friendly bid market if it can move relatively quickly, saving taxpayers a little more money.

Wendell also said the council was actively trying to not select a site that would represent a prime future opportunity for commercial development while still adding up to a quality of life improvement for citizens of Brookings for generations to come.

Linehan is the Beacon’s managing editor and welcomes comments at BrookingsBeacon@gmail.com