Supply chain issues slow work on new Sandwich police station

Sandwich police were hopeful to move into their new police station this summer, but the date has been pushed back due to supply chain issues.

Police Chief James Bianchi, however, is still confident the department will be operating out of the new facility by fall.

The current station at 308 E. College St., which the department moved into in the early 1970s, was once a milk house for Sandwich area dairy farmers and has less than 5,000 square feet of floor space.

Bianchi said that in addition to the lack of space, the former milk house has problems with plumbing and its HVAC system, is in a less-than-ideal location and has outdated infrastructure and mold.

The new station, in a building that once housed a custom stair manufacturer at 1251 E. Sixth St., will have between 12,000 and 14,000 square feet of floor space to better accommodate the department’s needs and allow for at least 50 years of growth, according to Bianchi.

The City purchased the building on Sixth St., along with a 2-acre adjacent plot, in 2016 for $480,000. To finance the renovations, the city sold $3.2 million in bonds, which will be repaid over a 20-year period. Mayor Todd Latham said the funds will be repaid with revenue from the city’s general fund.

“It’s a historic thing for a small town, spending $3 million dollars and change,” Bianchi said. “That’s why we have to maintain it. People are trusting us with the money to do it, so we have to make sure they get what they need.”

The construction side of the renovation is nearly complete. A cubicle-style bullpen for officers, offices for city officials, meeting rooms, a training area for presentations and space for other law enforcement agencies or community groups have all been renovated and furnished.

Bianchi said delays caused by logistics issues with information technology equipment is the biggest factor in the construction slowdown.

The new station will have an IT room that will securely house all the servers, phone systems and other technology for the city, with cyber protection and fire suppression systems that the city currently does not have.

Once IT is installed, Bianchi said they will be able to slowly start moving from the old station to the new, and beta testing the system before shutting the old one off and moving completely.

“It’s going to be a balancing act for a little while,” Bianchi said.

The new station is equipped with a monitoring center. Cameras have been installed throughout the city, at schools, City Hall, the sewer department, water department and street department, and will all be monitored at the new police facility.

Bianchi said he would also like to add downtown surveillance cameras in the future.

The new station is equipped with two holding cells, which will allow for the detainment of up to 12 people at once.

Bianchi said the new facility will allow his department to be better prepared for big events.

“We’ve never had the ability to work a major event before,” Bianchi said. “People will say, ‘That never happens out here.’ Well, look at Highland Park. We’ve got to prepare the best we can for those incidents.”