By Devin Leith-Yessian
Record-Journal staff
Work is progressing on the design of a new police station to be located in a former office building on Barnes Road.
Jacunski Humes Architects have begun the schematic designs for the project and have been meeting with Police Chief John Ventura, Deputy Chief Anthony DeMaio and Town Engineer Alison Kapushinski to complete a space needs assessment.
“Hopefully pretty soon we'll see what the interior design looks like … the members of the police department are excited to move into a new building,” Ventura said. He hopes that a final interior design will be available for the project’s steering committee to review in the next few months.
The town purchased 100 Barnes Road for $1.76 million in July 2021 as the future home for the Wallingford Police Department, with an estimated $24 million price tag for the project. The 41,000-square-foot building was previously home to offices for 3M.
Kapushinski said the space needs assessment will allow for the creation of a floor plan “that suits the current and future needs of the Police Department.” The retrofitting of the Barnes Road site will require the addition of two sally port bays and a firing range.
Town staff are also doing final reviews before soliciting bids to hire a construction manager. Kapushinski said her department is hoping to begin the bidding process in the next few weeks, with it likely being “a two-part bid with the technical score and cost score each weighted 50%.”
The department’s current headquarters in the former Wallingford armory building at 135 N. Main St. lacks the space and specialized design needed for modern policing, Ventura said. The 28,000-square-foot armory was built in 1920 and converted to the police station in 1986.
He said the Wallingford Police Station Steering Committee has been making good progress over the last few months in the push to create a state-of-the-art building that will allow the department to continue growing along with the town.
“… A lot of work’s going into it already and a ton of work is going to go into it in the future,” Ventura said.
Ventura also broached the possibility of renaming the building the “Town of Wallingford Department of Police Services,” however it was determined that such a change wouldn’t be within the steering committee’s purview.
“There’s a process it has to go through for a town building,” he said. “ … It was on the agenda and it was realized the committee doesn't have the authority to rename any building.”