ThisWeek CW 07/18/2013
Groveport City Council approved legislation at its July 8 meeting to invest in new facilities for the police department.
The building at 5690 Clyde Moore Drive is in the Green Pointe Business Park and currently houses Today’s Resources.
It is near the Groveport Madison school district’s administration offices at the southwest corner of Groveport Road and state Route 317.
City Administrator Marsha Hall said the legislation sets aside $800,000 to be used in the purchase of the property and necessary improvements and to renovate the municipal building once the police department has relocated.
“This building will house our police department, which is currently stuffed into the municipal building with us,” Hall said. “The $800,000 is the budget for the purchase of the building, improvements to the building to retrofit for the police, such as locker rooms, an intake room, evidence room, security, etc. and then a few improvements to the municipal building to relocate the building and zoning department to the side of the building currently housing the police, as well as the addition of a lunchroom.”
Hall said the $800,000 will be financed via a short-term note, which officials have budgeted to pay off in eight years.
“Currently, we have a rainy day fund which is now at its maximum, so the money that has been going into that fund from tax revenues will now be used to pay off this note,” Hall said.
“Originally, we had discussed a new construction for their building, but this building needs very few improvements and is laid out very nicely for the department, so it will save us approximately $5 million by purchasing this building.”
Now that council has approved the necessary legislation, city officials hope to complete negotiations on the property and close on the purchase, Hall said. After that, negotiations for a contractor can be completed and the work can get started.
“We hope to have the department in the new building by the end of the year,” she said.
Council also approved legislation July 8 to allow for the purchase of a house at 173 Front St., currently owned by Southeast Mental Health, which includes the municipal building parking lot.
“The purchase of the Front Street property includes the parking lot used by us,” Hall said. “We became aware that they planned to sell the property, so we are purchasing it so that we will now control the parking lot; however, we are not sure what we will be doing with the house.”