Town breaks ground on new police facility

By Ashley Keesis-Wood ashleykeesis@windsorbeacon.com

Backlit by red and blue flashing police vehicle lightbars, the Windsor Town Board, the Windsor Police Chief and other dignitaries officially broke ground for the new police facility on Monday night.

“Tonight is the fruition of a lot of planning,” said Windsor Town Manager Kelly Arnold. “During the October 2007 budget planning, the chief (Windsor Chief of Police John Michaels) and I brought the board on a tour of the police department in the basement. “The board saw the need for a new police facility and gave us the go-ahead to plan it.”

The $3.3 million, 14,800-square-foot building, located on a 3.92-acre plot of land south of the Windsor Community Recreation Center at 11th and Ash streets, is scheduled to be completed by August 2010.

Windsor Mayor John Vazquez said it had been a long process.

“The board was very clear that they didn’t want to fund this project through a tax increase,” he said. “It took a lot of creative thinking to make that possible.”

For that thinking, Vazquez commended Windsor Director of Finance Dean Moyer and his staff.

“The police have been deserving of their own house for a long time, and this is the best place for it, being hi-profile and located next to some of our potentially best customers (the students at Windsor High School),” Vazquez said to laughter. Michaels thanked the board and community for their support.

“This is the best possible location for our facility,” he said. “It’s close to the business corridor and central in the town.”

The town has been awarded a $4 million loan from the United States Department of Agriculture to construct the facility, with a 4.65 percent interest rate payable over 40 years. The project was designed by Roth-Sheppard Architects and will be constructed by Dohn Construction, Inc.

Jeffrey Sheppard of Roth-Sheppard said the building design reminded him of Michaels. “It’s humble, but effective,” he said. “It takes a great team to design a great project like this.”