Commissioners Review Perryville Police Station Plan

Perryville's elected officials agree that the town's police station needs an upgrade from its trailer on Otesgo Street. What the future station should look like, however, is up for debate.

Discussion about the future of the Perryville police station continued for nearly two hours at this week's town meeting.

Robb Manns of Manns Woodward Studios showed the layout for a proposed police station that was 9,500 square feet.

The design included public and private spaces. The public would have an entryway with a lobby, conference room, bathroom and administrative offices.

In secure parts of the buliding, there would be three holding cells, built to comply with federal laws; a conference room; three bunk rooms; a sally station for patrol cars; three interview rooms; an evidence processing area; armory; locker rooms; squad room and detective room.

"There's supposed to be sight and sound separation for a lot of different elements in a police station," said Manns, whose firm has done many projects for police and fire departments.

The original budget for the project was $1.8 million, and several Perryville officials were concerned that the proposed size and scope of the station would not meet that target.

“We probably not too far off of that,” Manns said. “We’re still early in the process.”

Mayor Jim Eberhardt stated that the town's solicitation was for a 6,000-square-foot design.

Town officials said they used the North East police station to come up with that figure. It was mentioned that North East, which has nine officers, has outgrown its station.

The Perryville Police Department has 12 officers.

Manns said that the town submitted its request without conducting a needs assessment; after he studied the needs of Perryville Police Department and met with Police Chief Vince Wernz, the determination was that 13,000 square feet was required. To meet halfway, Manns said his team worked with about 9,500 square feet.

One commissioner immedately looked for areas that could be scaled back to ensure the project stayed in budget.

"I think there are ways...[of] shortening [it] up a bit," Commissioner Michelle Linkey said.

"Do you guys have bunk rooms now?" Linkey asked Wernz, who was sitting in the audience.

"I've had officers sleeping on my floor," Wernz said.

"I'm not saying no bunk rooms," Linkey said. "I'm just saying...do you need three or do you need two?...I don't know how often that happens."

It was mentioned that with multiple bunks, the police station could serve as a shelter for people whose homes may have been damaged in a weather event, which may make the project eligible for grant funding.

Commissioner Barbara Brown asked whether there was a need to have a sally port, or secure carport, where two patrol cars could fit. "Why do you need two? You don't have any now," Brown said.

"It's a safety issue," Wernz said. "If you have a violent prisoner, you're going to have another officer following that other car," Wernz said. "This just happened," and the officers had to go to North East for processing.

Wernz also responded to Linkey's suggestion that the architect eliminate some of the detective and sergeant rooms.

"We don't have that now and people come in and see a poster up" with information about individuals police are investigating, Wernz said. "They shouldn't be seeing that."

Another space commissioners discussed eliminating was the conference room. Linkey asked why police couldn't use Town Hall.

"We're so limited the way we are," Wernz said.

He explained that he wouldn't want his officers training with Tasers, for example, when a citizen might walk in the door. "We have three officers that can do training but they can't do it because we don't have the space to do it," Wernz said. Instead, the department has to go to Aberdeen, Havre de Grace or North East for training.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Manns promised to "tighten up" the project based on feedback.

"I dont suspect that's going to create a huge impact on construction cost at the end of the day," Manns said, but he promised to do it "for the sake of prudence."

Eberhardt said that since projects were based on square footage, little pieces would add up to savings. "When I look at this thing, I can count 28 lockers," Eberhardt said.

By Thursday, the design firm had already created a new plan that included two bunk rooms and half the number lockers. The new design, attached to this article, has 14 lockers and two bunk rooms.

Manns told Patch after the meeting that he thought it was "very productive" as a brainstorming exercise.

"The competing value is need versus budget," Manns explained at the meeting.

"I think we need to do some real work in getting this to where we can afford it," Brown said.

Another commissioner mentioned the importance of planning for the future.

"This is what we need in 15 or 20 years," Town Commissioner Raymond Ryan said at the end of the two-hour discussion. "We're not always going to be this small little town, even if we want to maintain this feel."