OAKLAND — Residents will head to the polls Tuesday in a referendum vote on whether to build a new $1.05 million police station.
Polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Williams Elementary School on Pleasant Street.
The referendum question asks if voters will approve replacing the current police station with a new building, appropriate $1.05 million for construction, and authorize the town treasurer and town council chairman to borrow $900,000 and take $150,000 from two reserve accounts to pay for the building.
Town officials say the current police station, housed in a hundred-year-old farmhouse on Fairfield Street, is inadequate for the department’s needs. The building is cramped, has problems with mold and leaks, violates rules for people with disabilities, and presents safety issues for officers, victims of crime and members of the public.
The proposed 3,800-square-foot station would include offices and interview rooms, a locker room, a public area and a secure entrance into the booking area with an attached sally port that can fit two patrol vehicles.
A 12-member building evaluation committee spent months going over alternatives for the police station before recommending the new building. Town Manager Gary Bowman has said the new spending will not have an impact on taxes because debt repayments will be offset by covering some municipal costs with money from a tax increment financing district on the natural gas transmission line through town.
Officials have nevertheless been anxious about proposing new spending, because of a failed proposal to build a $4.5 million municipal complex in 2009 and repeated fights over tax increases included in the Regional School Unit 18 budget.
The two public hearings held on the issue last month attracted little interest from the public, and the handful of residents who attended spoke favorably about the project.
Don Borman and Dana Wrigley are running unopposed for two open seats on the Town Council. Thomas Burton is anunopposed candidate for one seat on the RSU 18 School Board. Harold Buzzell and Charles Sweigart are on the ballot for the Budget and Advisory Committee, which has three open seats.
Peter McGuire — 861-9239
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