The Frankfort City Council unanimously approved a resolution Monday night for the purchase of real estate which is hoped will house the new Frankfort Police Station.
“It’s something we’ve looked forward to quite for some time,” said Frankfort Mayor Judy Sheets. “I think it’s time we’ve moved on the police department and get a location picked. I think if we can get this contract signed and get this agreement together, I think it’ll be a good thing for the city.”
The location, which was approved in an executive session before the meeting, is a 7.7 acre spot just east of Brock Grain Storage Systems on State Road 28. The city will need to negotiate a cost for the property which is owned by the Community Foundation of Howard County. This was also one of two sites under consideration since the August 10 meeting. Sheets said the other was the former CVS West building on the city’s west side.
For the time being, this seems to bring to a close of all the sites that have been under consideration for the past three or more years. In 2018, then-Frankfort Police Chief Troy Bacon announced the new facility would be built at the Frankfort Municipal Airport that would include a fire station.
That property was decided upon after considering properties at CVS, the old Kyger School property, a lot of South Third Street near the Frankfort Utilities building and the old Marsh buildings. At that time, Bacon said everyone of those locations had problems that were too much to overcome. Also considered at the time was a possible renovation of the current police station, which didn’t work either. The police moved into the building in 1979.
Both Sheets and current Frankfort Police Chief Scott Shoemaker said the budget for the new building is between $7 million and $7.2 million.
“Everybody’s cautious because of COVID and budget concerns,” said Shoemaker. “I’d like it to be a little bit more. I think if we could get to $8 (million) or $8.2 (million), we can build basically everything we want and be prepared for the future.”
Shoemaker said they are hoping the purchase could be completed in the next month to month-and-a-half.
“I’m pretty optimistic,” said Shoemaker. “We don’t want to get crazy with the taxpayers dollars on building a building we don’t own yet.”