WILBRAHAM – The new $8 million police station project at 2780 Boston Road is on track for completion March 2017 and the Police Department is expected to finish moving into the new building next to the fire station sometime in May or June 2017.

Town Meeting approved a $4.2 million debt exclusion override for the project on May 11 by a 2/3-majority vote and the project officially broke ground in early March 2016.  

Police Chief Roger Tucker told Reminder Publications a new radio system would be installed at the station and new furniture would be brought in to building during the move-in period.

“It’ll be an improvement on the [existing radio system],” he explained. “Three years ago, the town funded adding microwave to our radio transmissions. Right now everything’s done over Verizon copper lines, which connects to all our remote sites, but Verizon doesn’t maintain those copper lines and every time there’s moisture or rain we’ve had some radio difficulties. So, going to microwave is just the modern way of doing it.”

New dedicated spaces would be included in the station that don’t exist at the existing station at 16 Main St., Tucker said.

“Our current interview room, we have one, but it serves six different purposes,” he noted. “So, we have designated interview rooms now that will just be for that purpose. Also, with our prisoner processing area when someone’s brought in under arrest there will be the regular booking procedures, the cell block areas, and there’s an interview room in the prisoner processing area, so they’ll have no access to the internals of the building.”

He added there is additional security at the new station, including more security cameras and rooms that require pass cards for entry.

The new station would also feature a sally port to keep police vehicles out of the elements, he said.  

At this stage, all the windows at the station have been installed. The doors of the building are scheduled to arrive sometime next week, Tucker said.

“They’ll put the temporary plywood doors out, put in the doors, and then they start some testing procedures after all that is in,” he added. “Right now the lower level is pretty much dry walled. I’m going to say it’s about 98 percent dry walled. They moved some of their crew to the upper levels to start dry walling there and I’m going to say they’re about 40 percent dry walled there. They went to be complete with dry wall before Christmas.

“So, that’s complete hanging, dry wall, taping, [and] sanding so then they can turn on the internal mechanical components of the building and use the building heat. Right now they have temporary heaters set up.”

The new station is also close to three times the size of the current station, he noted. The existing station is 5,300 square feet, while the new facility would be 15,800.

When asked what he’s most looking forward to with the move to the new station, Tucker replied, “Just some space to breathe. Having dedicated areas dedicated to a certain skill level; increased security for evidence; increased security for prisoner processing, and building security over all.”

He said the project would not have been possible without the support of residents for having confidence in the new department to fund the new station.