The Ashland City Council is set to approve plans to design a new police station for the city at its Tuesday night meeting. Ashland’s mayor hopes to have a concept in hand for the new station early next year.
The City Council is expected to approve a contract with Ashland firm C&S Design and Engineering. Ashland Mayor Deb Lewis said the current police station is “inadequate.”
“The police for many years have been working out of the basement of city hall. The facility has lots of structural problems. There is frequent flooding. We have issues with mold. It’s very small quarters,” she said. “It’s really not a suitable space for a state-of-the-art police department dealing with the kinds of problems that our police department is faced with.”
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Ashland’s mayor said they want a new facility to be more energy-efficient and provide more space for police operations. Lewis said the city is hoping to fund a new police station with grants or other sources.
“What we, at all costs, are going to try to avoid is raising taxes,” she said. “So whatever we can do in terms of getting grants and doing financing in a way that does not impact the tax levy, that is what we want to do.”
Lewis said the city is exploring all options for the new station, including buying an existing building or constructing a new one.
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