Augusta moves toward a new $20 million police station after years of debate
Courtesy / Artiflex Architects
A rendering shows what the new Augusta Police Department, proposed for 7 Willow St., could look like.
A three-year journey to find a site for a new station for the Augusta Police Department has finally reached its goal as the city council considers a $20.47 million, 30-year bond to cover the cost of building a station on a former supermarket site near downtown.
The police department is now housed in a former U.S. Navy Reserve building at the bottom of Capitol Park at the south end of the city. The new station would be built on a 2.29-acre lot at 7 Willow St., adjacent to the historic building that housed the department for 102 years, until 1998.
The 21,747-square-foot former grocery store is listed by NAI The Dunham Group for $2.2 million. It is owned by JOFKAM Co., and has been leased as a supermarket since 1962, most recently to Hannaford. The proposal is to buy the property for its assessed value of around $1.8 million.
The department has looked to move out of its decaying building for several years, debating the aspects of building of several locations, and in January 2019, the city hired a consultant to assess the top three sites. The pandemic delayed action, but at a Feb. 16, workshop, the city council heard an analysis of sites by Bangor-based Artiflex Architects & Engineers. The locations covered were the current site, at Union Street; a site downtown, on Water Street, which is occupied by a massive crumbling concrete warehouse; and the winning site, at 7 Willow St.
At a meeting two days later, the council agreed that the Willow Street site, across Bridge Street from city hall and just over the Bridge Street bridge from downtown, is the most cost-effective and centrally located. An online public hearing on the bond issue is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, April 15.
The city plans to tear down the one-story former grocery store, built in 1962, and build a two-story, 24,500-square-foot building, designed by Artifex. The firm specializes in municipal architecture and designed the city's new fire station on Leighton Road in north Augusta, which was built in 2017. Artifex has also recently designed public safety complexes in Skowhegan and Orrington.
The building was a Cottle's Market, then a Hannaford, until 2008, when Hannaford moved up the street in 2008 into the state's first LEED Platinum certified grocery store at the former site of Cony High School.
The current police quarters are in a U.S. Navy Reserve building constructed in 1949 that the city bought for $1 in 1998, when it moved out of its quarters on Bridge Street. The roof leaks, there is lead contamination in the pipes, bathrooms and locker rooms aren't adequate, there's no room to expand the dispatch center and the building is not up to code, city officials have said. It would cost more to renovate it than to build new, in a location that's closer to the city center.
The council plans to sell the current police station building, at 33 Union St., to the Augusta Housing Authority for $650,000, which city and housing officials have said is close to its assessed value. The housing authority, which has offices in the building, would renovate it into housing and build new offices on the site.
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This is an unacceptable, vulgar amount of money for a police facility of such a small city and rural state. Our officers deserve every advantage and solid support, and I'm grateful for their work and for risking their lives for us each day. But a $20 million facility in a state that can't manage to get hold of its budget, that cannot manage to stop spending to repeat-offending drug addicts, and a state that fails repeatedly at attracting new business and industry.... it would be ironic if not so completely embarrassing.
Good Luck !
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