It appears that the Frankfort Police Department will soon have a new home after city officials said the offer on the 7.7 acre spot just east of Brock Grain Storage Systems on State Road 28 was approved by the Howard County Community Foundation.
“Now, we move on to designing a building that will go on this particular spot,” said Frankfort Police Chief Scott Shoemaker. “All the buildings we’ve designed up to this point where one-story long buildings. We’re going to look at a two-story building that has a lot of space in the back to have a maintenance area and a parking area. We made an offer about a month ago and they (Howard County Community Foundation) accepted that offer.”
The announcement about the property deal came from Shoemaker, who said he received the news Monday morning. Shoemaker said they will be making two payments on the purchase price and added they will not raise any taxes or ask the council to appropriate any additional funds.
Last month, the council approved a resolution for the purchase of this piece of real estate. The Brock Grain site was one of two sites under consideration for the new police station. The other was the former CVS West building on the city’s west side.
This approval seems to bring 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.
Besides CVS West, other properties that have been considered are the old Kyger School property, a lot on South Third Street near the Frankfort Utilities Building and the old Marsh building.
“I’m excited about this,” said Frankfort Mayor Judy Sheets. “We did get the approval today from the Community Foundation to accept our offer of $200,000. We will give them a $100,000 this year, and next year in February we will go ahead and give the other $100,000. We’ll then take possession of the land.”
Sheets added they are anxious to meet with KJG, who is the architect of the project, to see how soon they can get things going. It should be noted that KJG were the architects for the recent expansion at Frankfort High School.
Shoemaker added they are hoping to get the design done in four months so it can be put out for bid by February with a ground breaking in either June or July of next year.