OPD explores grants for new public safety building

The Olney City Council voted on Dec. 12 to allow the city police department to submit a proposal to a charitable branch of Lowe’s Home Improvement to donate building supplies and labor to build out a new public safety building in the former Ranger College building at 210 S. Grand Ave without taxpayer funds.

Police Chief Dan Birbeck said the police department has devised a floor plan and gotten bids to convert the now-abandoned building to hold individual offices for each of the nine officers, a new dispatch center, an interview area, and a holding center for juveniles, as well as a “best practices” evidence room and evidence locker area with cameras. The new space would encompass about 2,400 square feet and would not require any re-engineering of the building - just a build-out of the new space, Chief Birbeck said.

The plan also envisions moving the existing generator to power the police station and to provide an emergency management center and a public shelter and warming area in case of extended power outages or a mass casualty event such as a tornado, he said.

“It seemed somewhat costly at the time to do that,” Chief Birbeck said. “Since then, [Detective] Dustin [Hudson] has done quite a bit of work about how we could mitigate the cost of that and has stumbled across different programs that help public safety agencies that are having difficulty funding [building projects] in small communities like us.”

Detective Hudson learned that Lowe’s evaluates such projects and scores them and “depending on how we score, the material could be donated and even the material and labor could be donated,” Chief Birbeck said.

Police department employees have reported health problems such as allergies and respiratory issues related to the current building, he said.

“There are a couple of objectives to us getting a new public safety building,” Chief Birbeck told the council. “It’s also about meeting best practices to certify as a best practices agency in the state of Texas. Aside from that, it would be a pleasant environment to be in a new PD build-out.”

Detective Hudson said local contractors have expressed interest in helping build the new public safety building, and a private donor has mentioned providing “the rest of the construction costs if Lowe’s doesn’t come all the way through for us.”

Mayor Rue Rogers supported the move, instructing the police department to pursue the grant and “come back and we can address further what we think the next step would be.”

“I really believe this could be one of those ‘pipeline to [Lake Kickapoo]’ projects where we all came together and got it done and it didn’t take money out of the city’s pocket and we had a new police station that has a good curb appeal to it, so to speak,” Chief Birbeck said.

Anyone interested in helping with the new public safety building can contact Detective Hudson at the Olney Police Department, 940-276-2013.