ThisWeek CW 10/03/2013
Groveport City Council approved funding for new police department facilities Sept. 23, voting in favor of issuing $1 million in short-term notes.
The money will be used to renovate a vacated area in the municipal building, update a storage building and remodel a building at 5690 Clyde Moore Drive with police department office space, locker rooms, evidence storage and detention cells.
“This will provide separation of offenders from the rest of the city operations and give the police department better security,” City Administrator Marsha Hall said. “The ordinance for the $1 million note that passed will cover the new police building, some changes to the municipal building and external work on the police storage building.”
The city anticipates spending about $800,000 on the new facilities, with the remaining $200,000 going toward renovation of the current facility so the building and zoning department can be relocated and a lunchroom can be added.
According to Hall, tax revenue that had been going into the rainy day fund, which is currently at its maximum, will be diverted to pay off the note over the next eight years.
Council members also approved legislation to extend Groveport’s current contract with Computer Site Columbus, a Worthington company, to provide the computer equipment and technology services necessary for the new police facilities.
“CSC is our current provider for IT services throughout our facilities, so this contract will allow us to purchase IT equipment and installation services for the new police building as well,” Hall said.
The city is still negotiating final costs for the equipment and services, she said.
Hall said she anticipates the city will move quickly on advertising for construction bids in order to get the work completed on the building on Clyde Moore Drive by the end of December and the renovations to the municipal building finished in January 2014.
In other development news, council heard the first reading Sept. 23 of an ordinance for the final plat design for the Town Center development at the corner of Front and Main streets. In anticipation of an unnamed new restaurant being a part of that development, the Groveport Madison Board of Education voted in favor of granting a liquor permit for the site during their Sept. 12 meeting.
The board of education was able to vote on the liquor permit because the Town Center is across the street from a school.