Town of Westwood To Hold Public Hearings On Police Station Proposal

On Thursday, March 10, 2016, the Town of Westwood is hosting an information session to give residents the opportunity to learn about the need for a new Police Headquarters, the proposed design and the budget for the project. The information session will start at 7:30pm and is being held at the Downey School, 250 Downey Street Westwood, MA. There will be a second information session held on March 24 at 7:30 pm at the Thurston cafeteria.

Last fall, Westwood voters approved a number of construction projects designed to prepare the existing Police Headquarters site for this endeavor. The approval included building an extension of Deerfield Avenue and creating more parking spaces for the new building.

During the information, the public will have a chance to review the final design proposal and ask any questions pertaining to the project.

In a recent interview with the Hometown Weekly, the Town Manager, Mike Jaillet explained that Westwood has needed a new police station since he began serving as town administrator 28 years ago.

“I have been here for 28 years, and back in the day when I hired my first police chief, the first words out of his moth was ‘oh my god, this place is tiny and inadequate for what it should be,’” Jaillet told the paper.

There are a number of issues that have become growing problems with the current station, including:

• Not being large enough to handle the current staff;
• Having code compliance issues;
• Lacking space to meet gender diversity requirements;
• Needing better secure locations for suspect intake and outtake; and,
• Many inefficiencies for the department.

“We are using some space that is totally inappropriate because it does not meet today’s codes,” Jaillet told the Hometown Weekly. “The space that we do meet codes is tiny.”

Some of the specific details of the new Police Headquarters include:

• 20,400 square feet of space – over triple the space of the existing police station’s 6,144 square feet;
• Safer intake bays
• Booking and detention area
• Space to meet evidence and retention requirements
• Community rooms that can be used by for public functions and police training
• Dedicated space for weapon storage and animal control

According to the Town, total costs are expected to be between a low estimate of $13.88 million and a high estimate of $15.89 million. A final cost for the project will be determined once bids from contractors are received in March.

One of the reasons that the Town is pursuing the final stages of this process is that it has met the fiscal ability to complete it. Jaillet told the Hometown Weekly that the University Station project has provided enough extra income to make the project possible. Additionally, he said, the town will not raise property taxes through an override to pay for the project. Rather, the town will pay for the 30-year bond to fund the project through an annual debt service allocation from University Station revenue.

If approved at town meeting, the process calls for construction to begin immediately after the new Deerfield Avenue extension is completed, which is slated for July 1. Construction is estimated to take about a year and a half to complete.