If Maplewood police are called to a riot, they’ve got their riot gear ready, somewhere.
“The (helmets) are up in the mezzanine … I think stacked behind some other stuff in the back,” said Deputy Chief David Kvam. “They’re not exactly easily accessible.”
Should officers ever need to use the equipment, they don’t want to be rummaging through stuff to get at it, Kvam said. But the department doesn’t have a lot of other options.
“We just lack general storage space,” Kvam said. “Everything is kind of here, there and everywhere.”
That is one of the reasons the Maplewood City Council recently approved spending $20,000 to conduct an architectural assessment of police headquarters, located in City Hall. Depending on the outcome, the city could choose to expand the building or possibly even build a new police station, said assistant city manager Chuck Ahl.
“The police department moved into this building in 1985,” Ahl said. “As they’ve grown, their needs have changed. … We need to define what those greatest needs are and what we can do about them.”
Today, the police department employs about 53 officers, compared with about 40 when it first opened, Kvam said. As the number of personnel has increased, officers have moved into areas of the station previously used for other functions, often to store equipment, evidence, records and other police materials.
One of the department’s holding cells holds vehicle equipment instead. A parking stall intended for vehicles confiscated for evidence is instead used for city maintenance storage. The department’s sally port — intended to be a secure, vacant drop-off point for officers transporting criminal suspects — is crowded with homemade lockers to hold firearms, bikes and other items, Kvam said.
The department’s fuming chamber — a smelly and potentially toxic chemical process used to find fingerprints — is done in the poorly ventilated garage.
“We just need more room,” Kvam said.
SEH Engineers and Architects of Vadnais Heights is studying the building and plans to bring recommendations to the city council in late June or early July, Ahl said.
Depending on those recommendations, early cost estimates range from $700,000 to $10 million, should the council opt for a new building. Another option is to reorganize City Hall to make more room for law enforcement.
Council member Marvin Koppen said he’d lean toward reorganizing existing space.
“If the police department moves out, we have 60 percent of our space (in City Hall) sitting empty. And what are we going to do with that?” Koppen said.
There is extra room in the city’s public works building that could fit some offices now housed at City Hall, he said. If they moved, the police department would have more room to spread out in the existing building.
Kvam said the department is aware of the potential financial burden a new station would create. “We have no illusions that tomorrow we are going to build a new building; frankly, I suspect that won’t happen. … But if we could address some of our needs in another way, that would be optimal,” Kvam said.
In addition to the police station, Maplewood has long-term plans to build a new fire station and make improvements to the Maplewood Community Center. The city ended 2010 with a $600,000 surplus, Ahl said.
The city council has scheduled a work session Monday night to prioritize future capital improvement plans.
Sarah Horner can be reached at 651-228-5539.
