WATERVILLE — Final test borings will be done today on the Colby Circle site where the city plans to build a police station, City Manager Michael Roy told city councilors Tuesday.

Once the borings are complete, the city’s architect, Port City Architecture, will finish the design of the 12,000-square-foot building, he said.

“It’ll take about six weeks for the design to be completed, so they’re talking about a September 28 time period for the design to be completed,” Roy said.

Then, the city’s construction manager, Wright-Ryan Construction Inc., will spend the next few weeks bidding out construction projects for the station, he said.

The city will have an idea of the project cost in mid-to-late October, according to Roy.

Meanwhile, the city will approach the state Department of Environmental Protection for a permit for the station, and go before the city Planning Board Sept. 10 with station plans, Roy said.

The Planning Board on that date would consider informal preapplication and final plans for the police station under the city’s site plan review ordinance.

Roy said he hopes that at the next council meeting in two weeks, councilors will be presented a budget number with which to work. That number is subject to change once bids are in, he said.

“Hopefully, the foundation, concrete and masonry work can be done before conditions get too cold, and the building can start taking shape,” he said.

He said he expects the city to negotiate a final purchase agreement with landowners High Partners within the next two weeks.

Roy handed councilors a preliminary site design, which shows a police station and 48 parking spaces on the southernmost parcel on Colby Circle.

Councilor John O’Donnell, D-Ward 5, said the site appears to be much bigger than an initial site the city looked at on the circle.

Roy said it is larger — about 1.5 acres. The former site is about 1.2 acres.

While the southern lot requires a longer access road to the entrance and exit, it is a better site with more room for building and parking expansion, he said.

Councilors voted earlier this month to buy the land at Colby Circle with the conditions that the purchase price be $125,000 and that the site have no environmental issues.

In other police matters Tuesday, councilors voted 5-0 to buy two 2013 Chevrolet Caprice police cruisers from Central Maine Motors Auto Group in Waterville for $46,492. The cost for the cruisers includes the trade-in values of two police cruisers, 2008 and 2009 Ford Crown Victorias.

Councilor Rosemary Winslow, D-Ward 3,told police Chief Joseph Massey she was told by an officer recently that the back seats of the new Ford Taurus cruisers the city recently bought are cramped.

Massey said there are issues with Ford Taurus cruisers, which the department bought in March, including the fact bumpers and back seat cages are not interchangeable from the Crown Victorias and the back seats are small and cramped and it is difficult for a large man to get in or out of the back seat. The city had used Ford Crown Victorias for 20 years, but they are no longer manufactured.

Other police departments complained about the same issues with the Tauruses, he said.

This time around the department is going with the Chevrolets. “To us, it was a lot better choice of car,” he said. “The police departments who have them are reporting good luck with them.”

O’Donnell asked Massey if the equipment from the old cruisers was going to be moved into the new ones, and Massey said it was.

Council Chairman Fred Stubbert, D-Ward 1, noted that the city finally is buying police cruisers locally. Massey said it is nice to have local dealers willing to bid on cruiser requests.

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