GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Progress and talks continue as the Green Bay Police Department works with the city council on securing a site for a new headquarters.
The force has outgrown the outdated building along S. Adams Street downtown.
Captain John Laux say Alderman Joe Moore has been a big supporter of the effort.
“It went to council earlier. It seemed to kind of stall a little bit. Joe Moore, grabbed it and said ‘hey, bring it back to finance, we’ll look at these concerns the council has.’ One of the concerns that was brought up was, is there an existing building? Do we need to go with a brand new parcel? Where are we going to find the land? So, right now it’s kind of in that flux area, where they’re trying to decide what to do to move forward,” said Laux.
Besides the added space needed in a new facility, the department is looking to be more community friendly.
“We’re looking to be inviting. We’d like to add community rooms, access to computers. My vision is to have this inviting lobby where maybe a daycare or a grade school will want to spend a field trip to come down and see the history of the city, history of the police department, fire department, all in this big inviting lobby,” Laux explained.
As for a timeline, Laux says he hopes to be bonding for money for site acquisition by the fall.
A project of this size, with a building approximately 100,000 square feet or more, could take around 3 1/2 years to complete.
The price tag is estimated at $34 million dollars.