County-funded project is 15 percent complete
Sheriff’s Station grows, making Lakewood safer
05/09/2006 - The roar of diesel engines echoes where sheriff’s detectives once questioned criminal suspects. And where deputies crowded into cramped quarters, workers in hard hats pour concrete and lay masonry.
The Lakewood Sheriff’s Station – after almost 50 years of service – is a true veteran of law enforcement. Too busy and too important to the safety of more than 260,000 residents in Lakewood and four other cities, the station couldn’t easily be replaced. Instead, city, county, and Sheriff’s Department officials agreed last year that the station would be modernized and expanded.
With the enthusiastic support of County Supervisor Don Knabe, ground was formally broken in February, and the pace of work hasn’t slacked since. The $18 million, county-funded project on Clark Avenue is already 15 percent complete, in part because of a novel agreement that made the city responsible for overseeing the project’s design and construction.
At their Tuesday, April 25 meeting, Lakewood City Council members received a positive report on the first 70 days of progress on the Lakewood Sheriff’s Station renovation and expansion project. Public Works Director Lisa Rapp detailed the milestones passed in the station remodeling project.
“It’s been something of a logistical puzzle,” noted Public Works Director Lisa Rapp. “We are building a new, two-story structure to link two existing buildings, gutting and remodeling one of them, and keeping the other in 24-hour operation so that sheriff’s services to residents are not disrupted.” Demolition, site preparation and excavation, concrete work, and the installation of utilities have all been completed, she reported. Debris from the demolition has been recycled, she added.
Structural steel and exterior sheathing are soon to go up for the station’s new lobby, the most visible part of the project. In keeping with Sheriff Lee Baca’s goal of making stations more accessible as community resources, the lobby addition will be larger and more convenient. Waiting areas for patrons and visitors (via teleconferencing) with county prisoners will be separated, for example.
Behind the lobby, detectives will have new areas to interview witnesses and question suspects, something the old station layout lacked. Patrol deputies also will get a better working environment, too, including new facilities for women deputies. Technology improvements – a multi-camera security system and new infrastructure for networking data directly to the station’s Emergency Operations Center – will provide new capacity to deal with emergencies and natural disasters.
Given the current pace, city officials expect to preview the nearly completed station project in February 2007.
