Edgewater police and library employees are used to cramped quarters at their offices, but they have something to look forward to after voters overwhelmingly supported a new civic center for the small city on Election Day.
The facility will provide a new home for the police department, library and city offices and will also include a fitness center.
“Itap the biggest thing we’ve ever had going,” Edgewater city manager HJ Stalf said.
The 46,000 square-foot building will cost around $9.5 million according to early estimates and will be built on the edge of Walker-Branch Park — near West 19th Avenue and Harlan Street — and will be paid for through a 25-year lease-purchase agreement that will not use taxpayer money. The city will go through the design process this winter and hopes to break ground on the civic center by the summer, with completion slated for 2018.
Edgewater — which has about 5,300 residents just west of Sloan’s Lake — asked for voter approval on financing the civic center and to also get an OK on the use of park land as a site to build the facility. Nearly .
Stalf said an election was not mandatory, but it was recommended that the city go to voters before moving forward, considering park land would be used and much of the
“Thatap the way our council wants to roll. I think we just went the extra mile,” Stalf said.
Stalf expressed some concern that the new presidential administration could jeopardize legal marijuana in Colorado, but said the city would still be able to pay for the facility should it lose access to those tax dollars.
“Itap a vulnerable revenue source that more than likely will continue. But we rolled this out with the idea that we want to build it whether it does or doesn’t,” he said.
The new civic center will have the greatest impact for the police department and the library as both will have much more space and better connectivity to the rest of the city offices.
The library, which sits in a 1,000 square-foot space on West 25th Avenue, will move into a facility 10 times the size of the current space.
Library supervisor Amy Beebe noted that her library still has limited hours, and she often has to send away items returned to the location as there isn’t space to put them on display.
“Itap so wonderful, but itap a little bit scary too,” she said.
Jefferson County Public Library will pay about $1 million toward furnishing the new space and expanding the hours for the library — it’s able to pay for this thanks to a mill levy increase that passed last year.
For Edgewater police and its 17 officers, the new civic center will get them out of dilapidated conditions and consolidated into one place. The investigations unit is in a separate building from the rest of the department.
“Itap not designed to be a 21st century police department. Itap not even designed to be a 20th century department. Itap really lame,” Shalf said of the police building.
Edgewater Police Chief John Mackey said that his officers don’t have enough space for storage and are often on top of one another when in the office.
He said the excitement level was high for the new facility.
“We have several long-time police staff who have been working in poor conditions their entire career. They are ecstatic with the fact that we will move forward with new building,” he said.
Mayor Kris Teegardin said Walker-Branch Park was a good location for the civic center as the hope is to activate a park that is underused and sees a lot of police activity. He noted that the city will not use eminent domain to acquire or tear down any homes that border the park.
“Itap been one of our top priorities since I’ve been an elected official,” Teegardin said of the civic center. “I think the library with a park next to it will be an amazing experience for kids who go there. We plan to upgrade more of that park.”