Bella Vista Police Chief James Graves presented the results of a needs assessment for a new police department and courts facility to the Bella Vista City Council during its Monday, May 13, work session.
The needs assessment, performed by Rogers-based architecture firm Hight Jackson, looked at the city's growth and what it will need in terms of a police department over the next 30 years, Graves explained, and generated conceptual floor plans and a rough design for the structure.
"This is sort of a first blush," he explained.
The cost estimate for the conceptual 44,834-square-foot structure came in between $11,871,000 to $13,058,000, which includes an extra 2,640-square-foot shell space that could be used for future expansion and could be omitted at a savings of $235,000 to $260,000.
Graves said the conceptual structure was set up with a basement and two above-ground floors to minimize the building's footprint and use less of the city's limited flat ground.
Even if the city had the money right now, Graves said that groundbreaking would likely take a year or more.
As it stands, he said, the city needs to figure out how to fund this project and get with the public to gain voters' approval. Groundbreaking might be in 2021 at the earliest, he said.
The proposed layout includes 39 secure parking spaces and 59 parking spaces for the general public, with an interior that includes a courtroom, training rooms, locker rooms, offices, conference rooms, a gun range, storage for records and property, break rooms, equipment storage, a briefing room, holding cells and interview rooms.
Graves said that the department needs a new building at its current staff level and it needs to be big enough that the police force won't outgrow it immediately.
Building for 30 years out is a fairly standard practice now, he said, and by then the city's population has been somewhat conservatively estimated at 55,000 to 65,000.
Currently, he said, the department has 34 officers and by then would need to have around 75 to comfortably meet the city's needs. Factoring in support staff, that brings the department up to about 100 people total in 2050, he said.
The department's current space, which is a former POA building, is about 7,000 square feet and with the staff it currently has, he said, it needs about 14,000 to 15,000 square feet of space.
In addition to space, he said, it meets other departmental needs.
The training and exercise spaces will make it easier to train officers and keep them in shape, he said. Fitness can make them more capable in the field and reduce the department's health-related expenses, he added.
"Physical fitness is a big thing," Graves said.
The four-lane pistol range will also allow officers to train and qualify year-round, he said. Officers currently do most of their firearm practice on their own time, he said, and the department needs to use the POA's gun range for qualifying, which occupies it and prevents members from using it for a time.
The proposed dispatch center would have space for as many as six dispatchers, once the equipment is set up for all of them. Currently, he said, the department could use a trio of dispatchers, though it only has space for two.
The currently-discussed location is next to the streets department building on Forest Hills Blvd. Graves said that, while this seems to be further out, this is an area that is expected to see additional growth once the Bella Vista Bypass is complete. Moreover, he said, it's fairly close to the geographical center of the city, which sits near the current court facility at 612 W. Lancashire Blvd.
There aren't many options, he said, because the city needs to find land that is relatively flat and that it owns. This one works because the police already have an evidence building there and squad cars are fueled and serviced at the streets department building, Graves said.
And it also provides good access to the rest of the city, he said, by placing officers near the bypass, which can allow easier access to the south end of town, Lancashire Blvd. for access to the central portion of the city and Forest Hills, which leads to U.S. Highway 71 just north of the state line.
"That's really an ideal location," he said. "I'm excited about the project."
General News on 05/23/2019