Work on police station addition/renovation to start soon
Published on April 21st, 1999
STONEHAM, MA - The crowded hallways and cluttered rooms of the Stoneham Police Station have been a problem for several years now. So much of a problem, in fact, that investigations were jeopardized.
"We are now housing evidence in four areas," explained Police Chief Eugene Passaro. "They (the designers) understand the situation. These are just some of the problems. I'm very afraid of losing track of drugs, narcotics and other evidence. That's where the problems come in."
Passaro said that, over the past few years, the walls of the Stoneham Police Station have seemed to close in on him and his officers while the scope of municipal police departments' work continues to rise. Aside from problems with evidence - which the department has been forced to store in cells, closets and any vacant corner in the station - a lack of interview rooms, public rest rooms and dressing rooms has been a growing concern.
"It's crazy. Those are very serious issues and they are issues that have to be addressed."
Cleary Buckley of Donham & Sweeney, Inc., project architect for the new Stoneham Police Station, says that these issues will soon be just memories.
Made possible by a Special Town Meeting vote in October of 1997 to appropriate $3.7 million and another at the Special Town Meeting in October, 1998 to up the ante to an even $4 million, the construction for the new police station is expected to begin in the coming weeks. The existing 7,800 square foot building will be gutted and rehabbed, and a substantial addition will be built around it. These changes will transform the Common Street structure into a state-of-the-art, 21,400 square foot station.
"I think that it's going to make the process of doing business for the police more efficient," Buckley said of the new home for Stoneham police. "The interior's certainly going to be nicer and will be more efficient.
"I'm hoping that it's just going to make life a lot easier for police to do their job."
The original station was built in 1971 and was intended for police work of that era. In the early 1990s, the Police Department began running into some space problems and, eventually, the entire station was transformed into one big filing cabinet.
"There are a lot of systems in the building that are not functioning real well," Buckley said. "There are just some things that they (officers) don't have that they really need."
The new designs will more than double the existing area of the station. According to Passaro, this project is aimed not only at resolving present day issues, but those that would arise 10 to 20 years from now.
"We can expand beyond what our needs are today," the chief explained. "We will have room for expansion."
This expanded area will include meeting rooms to give visitors of the station more privacy when they speak to officers. It will also include public rest rooms which could be used 24 hours a day and will come in handy for events like Town Day. In addition, the building will give Passaro all the filing space that he desires.
The exterior of the building will be in concert with the existing structure, Buckley stated. The only significant change would be the addition of a sloped roof, replacing the flat one which presently covers the Stoneham Police Station and many surrounding municipal buildings. This change caused some concern for members of the Town Common/Parking Committee in a recent meeting due to the neighboring structures and a possible lack of architectural harmony between them. When the common is completed, Buckley assured, the present building will not detract from its glory.
"I think it's going to be a big improvement over what's there," he said. "It's not going to be a fancy building, it's not going to be a show piece building, but it will be attractive."
The flat roof has been phased out in the past couple decades, the architect explained, due to its lack of stability. The final decision to go with a sloped roof, however, was made due to the lack of stability in one roof in particular - the station's.
"They've been having problems with leaking which is kind of inherent in the design. It's a lot easier to (construct the sloped roof) once and forget about it," he said.
"I think the pitched roof is going to pull it all together."
According to Passaro, construction has been delayed for the time being due to the ongoing search for a general contractor. In the meantime, a portion of the Town Hall lawn to the west has been paved and will serve as the temporary site of the station. Trailers will be brought in the coming days and work will then begin to transport the needs of the department from the existing building.
"We don't know how long it will take them to set up," Passaro said of the move. "We want to do it as soon as possible, but we can't move until they finish up."
Passaro said that he hopes his department will be back in the cozy confines of the new station by next summer.
"The problem is getting them started," he said.
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