Cost Estimated for Combined Facility For Police, Fire Upward of $8 million

CAPE MAY – The combination of a new police station and firehouse could cost the City of Cape May from just under $8 million to almost $12 million. 
Those were the estimates provided by Robert Conley Architect, LLC of Woodbury Heights during a presentation of a police department needs assessment and deficiency report to the City Council Nov. 21. 
The same firm had done a similar study on the proposed firehouse several months ago projecting a cost of a new facility on the same ground as the present firehouse of about $2 million.
Since the earlier study had shown the best location for the firehouse to be the current site facing Franklin Street, the architect presented three options for placing a police building in the same space. 
In two of those options, there would be connectors and some shared space.  In one option the two buildings would be next to each other but fully stand-alone structures.
The city established an advisory committee on a proposed public safety facility earlier this year. That committee, chaired by former mayor Jerry Gaffney, agreed that the current facilities for police and fire departments are substandard and need to be replaced with new construction. Renovation of the facilities was not seen as a viable option.
The committee also reported that the best solution to the city’s needs was one public safety complex with “co-joined” buildings.
The problem with the proposed site is the limited parking that will be available when the two-building complex is built.
Parking will be barely adequate for the full-time police officers at the proposed building, with summer officers unable to park at the station.
The architectural firm’s presentation cataloged the many site deficiencies in the current police department facility.
Moving briskly from patrol to investigations, to dispatch to administrative needs, the firm documented the many problems, frequently noting as well that current facilities do not meet the requirements of the state Department of Corrections.
From interview facilities to evidence processing, from detention cells to the lack of a sally port, from secure storage facilities to dedicated space for IT equipment, the list of deficiencies continued.
As the firm’s President Robert Conley also noted, an issue with the design of police facilities is the need for compartmentalization, keeping areas separate from each other, especially if the area can have public access.
One example in the present facility is that interview space for victims is not separate from interview space for alleged perpetrators. 
The many violations of state requirements which the state has overlooked given the limitations of the current facility would not be overlooked in a new structure.
What the firm presented to council was a deficiency analysis and a conceptual plan for a new facility. It had none of the details necessary to finalize budget estimates. 
In two options the police department would face on Washington Street and the firehouse would continue to be faced on Franklin Street. 
In the third option the two are flipped with the fire engines entering Washington and the police department facing Franklin.
Depending on the design concepts the city adopts the costs for the police facility, fully loaded with construction, furnishings and professional fees is about $5.7 to $6 million with the Fire House estimated at another $2 million.
In option three, which is the option that flips the arrangement of the buildings, the firm gave only a combined cost fully loaded of approximately $11.8 million.
As to schedule, the focus of the discussion was on when ground breaking might occur. Conley said that if the city desired to break ground just after Labor Day 2018, decisions on the options had to be reached in the next two months to allow for design and bidding.
Given the city’s usual desire to avoid construction projects during the summer, Conley said that failure to agree quickly probably would mean moving the project a year and breaking ground in 2019.
During the public comment period, there were still concerns raised by some members of the public about the city’s current effort to study establishing a redevelopment zone for the same block.
Some argue that this makes little sense unless there was some not yet public plan for the area of the Acme shopping center and its parking lot.
There has been a concern that city officials are trying to support reported plans by businessman Curtis Bashaw to build a parking garage on the space of the Acme parking lot.
No acknowledgment that such a plan is even a consideration has come from any city officials in open meetings.
The concern persists because most of the “redevelopment” of the block is involving public entities that would have no need for a redevelopment zone.
This concern will probably continue to be expressed until the Planning Board presents its considerations to the council concerning the value of a redevelopment zone designation.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.