The New Ipswich Select Board is gearing up to restart discussions on a solution for its emergency services departments, after hearing a conceptual discussion for a safety complex behind the town offices Tuesday.
For more than 10 years, the town has been grappling with deficiencies, particularly in the Police Department since it vacated the building between the town offices and Department of Public Works garage, known as Building No. 2, due to a black-mold infestation.
The Police Department moved to rented office space across the street in what was originally meant to be a temporary solution that has lingered on due to a lack of other options. Among the issues are a lack of garage for vehicles, a single entry point that requires arrestees to come through the main lobby, where they may be members of the public; no separate area for juveniles; lack of storage space; and no holding cell.
Because the space is rented, the town is not able to make renovations to resolve some of these issues. The town has made a few forays through warrant articles into building a new facility or purchasing and renovating the facility where the police are currently housed, but none have gained traction with the public.
Select Board Chair Shawn Talbot said it’s time to restart that conversation, beginning with a presentation Tuesday by Matt Wardwell, a New Ipswich resident who made the issue his capstone project for his associate’s degree in architecture.
Working together with Fire Chief Meredith Lund and then-Police Chief Tim Carpenter, Wardwell discussed the needs of the individual departments and designed a combined facility that included the fire, police and emergency management departments, complete with floor plans and architectural renderings.
Wardwell noted that the building was designed as an ideal, and included spaces such as a dispatch room for the Fire Department – which currently uses dispatch services from a provider – and was likely larger than New Ipswich’s current needs, but was still feasible. The estimate for the cost of the combined building, including demolition costs for Building No. 2, would have been about $4 million in 2020, when Wardwell completed the project.
“I think it can be done for a town like this,” Wardwell said.
While the Police Department has been the focus for New Ipswich in recent years, the Fire Department building is also aging and lacking in room for training and offices.
Selectman Lou Alvarez noted the town had discussed a combined complex in the past, but this was the first time board members had been able to see it in concept.
Talbot said Wardwell’s concept wasn’t specifically what the town would be pursuing, but made for a good “jumping-off point” to restart discussions about the future of the town’s departments.
“It’s going to be up the the townspeople,” Talbot said.
To that point, Talbot said he wanted to begin to plan some ways for community members to add their input, particularly in light of failed proposals in the past. He said he would d like to wait for a plan that had already gathered significant support from residents before putting it on the warrant again.
The town no longer has an active committee to study the issue, but Talbot said he said he wanted to see a committee active again or community forums to discuss the issue and see what plan the town could support.
“This isn’t anything we’re looking to force down people’s throats,” he said.
Talbot said he would be looking for a “slow, pragmatic” process, which could bring forth a plan for town vote in 2024 or 2025.
At the suggestion of an audience member, the Select Board requested the police and fire departments arrange for community tours of the facilities, so that residents could see the issues first-hand.
Police Chief Mike Abel agreed tours would be beneficial, noting that facility tours several years ago, when the town was proposing to purchase and renovate the offices where the department is currently housed, opened they eyes of visitors to just how cramped the facilities are.
“We had people come in who were 100% against, and we gave the tour, and then they said, ‘Yeah, you need a new police facility.’ It’s a see-it-to-believe-it kind of thing,” Abel said.
Abel and Lund agreed to arrange tours for the public this summer and autumn.
Ashley Saar i can be reached at 603-924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.