A New Home For The Police Department?

As progress moves forward with the new Fire Station (and what a great building!), the city has begun to turn attention to the building that has housed the Fire Company for many years. Structurely, the building is sound and a rennovation project is more than feasible.

At the same time, the city is interested in providing a new location for the Police Department which will serve the needs of the city in the coming decades. Previous Councils and the City Manager have felt the Fire Department building could be designed and rehabilitated to meet the current and future needs of the police department.

The old National Guard Armory building was gifted to the city by the State of Maryland when they relocated the unit that once called Pocomoke City "home". While it was never designed as a police department, it has undergone numerous adaptations over the years to accomodate the ever increasing needs of the police department. It has also served as a home to various civic groups and organizations over the years. The Salvation Army and Save The Youth programs continue to utilize the gym which makes up most of the first floor of the building.

The Armory Building is not very serviceable and is very costly to maintain. So, the question that we face is what to do with two buildings that are old and need to be completely rennovated? We have only a few choices:

• Keep the police department at the current location and rennovate the building;


• Move the police department to the old fire house following a rennovation of that building;


• Find another location for the police department in existing or new construction.

I would prefer a new building, but the city did not plan for this in the past and land may not be available in a location that would make the most sense.

The current location of the department is geographically a poor choice. There is also limited parking and little room for expansion as the building is also accomodating other community uses.

The old fire house is being abandoned for good reason by the Fire Company. A full rennovation of the building would be required. The location is good and parking is superior. Also, the city already owns the building and it may be in our best interest to rehabilitate it to our best use.

Rennovating the current location would probably be the least expensive, but it would continue to limit future growth of the department and the parking situation would remain poor.

Rennovating the old fire house would not cost less than one million dollars, but the results would meet the needs of the city for decades to come and would make good use of a city property.

Aquiring the land for a new build along with the costs of the building would, most likely, exceed one million dollars. The city would also be left with two properties which may be difficult to sell or otherwise utilize.

These are some of the questions and decisions the City Council must make in the near future. While some preliminary work has been performed to garner the appropriate knowledge to make an informed decision, no decision has been made at this time. The city has applied for a Legacy Grant from the State of Maryland to be used in the event we decide to move forward with rehabilitation of an existing building. There is no grant money available for new construction, although low interest loans could be an option.

This issue should be on the November 5th agenda for the Mayor and Council to be discussed.