BROOKINGS The city wants to hear from the public regarding the construction of a new headquarters for the Brookings Police Department and it certainly did at a community meeting on Nov. 3 in the cafeteria at Brookings High School.
The proposed site at the southwest corner of Fifth Street South and Medary Avenue South is basically between the high school and Medary Elementary School.
City Manager Paul Briseno said 17 sites were examined during a five-year selection process, with most of them not meeting necessary criteria, such as acre size with 3 to 4 acres being ideal and being on a collector-designated street.
Dozens of people attended the two sessions, and among the questions was one that centered on how the BPD would handle sex offenders who were required to be on a registry. The proposed headquarters, after all, would be near schools, which are within designated community safety zones that are off limits to sex offenders.
Police Chief Michael Drake sought to assuage the fears, saying that the BPD has control over when appointments are set up with the offender.
When they come in to register they have a date and time set they come in through the lobby, they check in, and then theyre brought inside the secure part of the facility, he explained. Once we conduct business, they are to leave. Part of their conditional release or the grounds of their probation or parole or why they have to register is theyve already been educated and informed what exactly they can and cant do.
Drake continued, Once they leave our facility, if there is any word theyre hanging around we get a report of that theyre going to be in violation of that, either (the) release or the registry. So, bringing them in we would be very intentional when we could do it. Im not going to say that were always going to be able to do it off hours, after hours and on the weekends, but we would try to make sure that we worked out so that we didnt have folks like that always coming through the lobby at all times.
Another audience member asked how immigrant parents might feel with the presence of a new police station so close to the high school and an elementary school, and if they should have anything to worry about.
Drake emphasized that the BPD is looking to be a good neighbor, and not to intimidate a population.
We want to normalize our relationship in a positive, non-enforcement method. If they have warrants, we would encourage people to take care of those but, again, were not looking to be standing in parking lots with binoculars, he said. Thats not the business that we would build in our police station. We would look to say, Hey, we have SROs already embedded in the schools. Theyre taking care of their business. Were here in case we have to be, but our focus is on the entire community.
Another person wondered why the city wants the new facility to be in the middle of town.
Its one of those things where we heard from a lot of people (regarding) that central location; its not like we were, Well, two schools, lets ram it in there, Drake said. We methodically looked at these and became intentional about this (as) a great way to have that administrative ability (in a) police station present right in the heart of our city so that no matter how we grow out north, south, east or west its still in that hub and creating that environment.
Why build?
Leading up to the audience questions, City Councilor Nick Wendell sought to answer the greater question: Why are we building a new police station in Brookings?
He said the conversation is more than a decade old, but that it acquired an urgency in 2019 when a deeper evaluation was done on the current public safety facility, which houses not only the BPD, but the main fire station as well.
It became clear we needed to make a considerable investment in that facility, Wendell said.
Over the last five years, the city has evaluated the facility, and came up with the following options:
- Do a complete renovation of the facility at the current location
- Knock down the facility and rebuild at the current location
- Build a new facility at a new location
There will be pros and cons in any of those scenarios, but weve come to the determination that it makes the best sense to build a new facility at a new location, Wendell said.
He noted that the current facility could possibly be repurposed for other opportunities that are connected to the downtown core of Brookings, but that there are some serious infrastructure issues such as aging HVAC and IT systems that would need to be addressed.
Wendell went on to say that the search for a new and suitable BPD location was exhaustive in nature, with pros and cons for each site studied. Finally, though, the city landed on the site at the southwest corner of Fifth Street South and Medary Avenue South.
Part of why we wanted to really kick off the process by having a community conversation is because we recognize that its adjacent to our school campuses. Its also adjacent to a core neighborhood in the community, he said. Our goal is to engage as many members of that community and that neighborhood as possible on the front end so we can make modifications if we need to.
Briseno and Drake added to the conversation as well. Briseno noted that the current facility was built in the 1960s and once housed City Hall as well while Drake said parking limits and the buildings layout were not conducive to efficient police operations nor public interaction with police.
Wendell pointed out that the sites selection initially surprised him, too but, as the conversation evolved, he came to see some real merit in the potential location.
I think it gives us an opportunity to build a 21st century police department that is really thoughtful about how we integrate it into our existing school campus and the existing neighborhood, he said. Right down to creating community meeting spaces within the facility so that there are places where members of the neighborhood and other members of the community and community groups CPR classes and high school and elementary students could feel welcome to come into a convenient space inside of the facility.
Wendell added, Were not interested in building a fortress between our elementary school and our high school. Were really interested in building a modern police facility that welcomes folks from the community into the front doors.
Costs and savings
Regarding the price tag, Finance Director Ashley Rentsch noted that the city has approximately $18 million set aside for construction of not only the new BPD headquarters, but a new main fire station as well.
There is a ballpark construction cost estimate of $4 million for the fire station and $19 million for the public safety building, so the citys a bit short yet, but it remains in a far better financial position than most of its peer communities.
Briseno said if the project goes forward, construction wouldnt be completed until the latter part of 2028.
Itll take time, Briseno said, adding that costs increase from 6% to 8% each year.
Other questions
The audience had other queries as well, with one of them focusing on a proposed land swap between the city and the school district.
The swap, which is part of the overall process and would affect roughly 4.8 acres, is an even exchange. The land in question is city land located just south of the high school track, and school land just east of Medary Elementary School that is currently vacant but is used for recreational purposes.
The swap hasnt taken place yet, since the process is still in its early stages and would require action from the City Council and school board.
Other questions included concerns about parking at other parks and rec facilities if the BPD project goes through and results in the loss of two fields that are currently in use. The audience member also had traffic worries, along with the use of sirens in and around schools.
Briseno said a traffic analysis is planned to help understand how the BPD should operate in its proposed new location for such things as shift changes. He also noted that the first thing officers do when coming into work in the morning is to monitor the schools, so theyre already in those neighborhoods bright and early.
The No. 1, most important people in this community are our kids, Briseno said. Theyre already around your schools today. If theres a need to turn on lights and sirens around the schools, theyre going to do that, but they are trained to ensure safe protocols are done to protect everyone within proximity.
Contact Mondell Keck at [email protected].
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