NORTH PORT, Fla. — North Port leaders are considering options for a new police department headquarters, and how they are going to pay for it.
The current building is nearly 20 years old and has taken a beating from hurricanes. Police officers and staff are forced to work in very cramped spaces.
In 2006, when North Port opened a combined $15 million city hall and police department package deal, the population was just under 50,000 with just around 70 officers and 30 staff members. Now, those numbers have unexpectedly doubled and the police department building no longer has enough space.
"This was a closet here that was turned into an office. This is one of our commander's offices," Deputy Chief Christopher Morales said as he showed the interior of the facility to 10 Tampa Bay.
A 24-year North Port Police Department veteran, Morales has seen the city grow in leaps and bounds.
He has also seen the offices inside the 30,000-square-foot police department grow as well, expanding into other parts of the building, like the conference rooms.
"We used to have three conference rooms. Now we're down to only one conference room as you can see here our conference room has been turned into two office spaces," he said.
With plans for 24 officers to join the force this year, several breezeways and copy rooms have not been left out of the changing floor plan and have been converted into office space.
"Well, at least I've got somewhere to sit. We'll go with that," Jennifer Ayres, a staff member, said.
Extreme weather has also put the building to the test on several occasions.
"This last one, Ian, hit we were without power for a few days. We had to have outside resources coming to help support and stand up this building until we could regain power," Morales added.
Now, city leaders want to build a new $122 million state-of-the-art complex police headquarters of more than 100,000 square feet.
The new facility will be located along Toledo Blade Boulevard on a four-acre city-owned parcel bought in August last year.
"It just really just an unintended consequence of the growth of our city," Jerome Fletcher, the city of North Port manager, said.
"With the rate that this city is growing, the officers and public safety only becomes more premium, and the people who want to be here, make no mistake, they want to be here because it's a safe place to be," he added.
City leaders say the new facility will account for the city and the police department's growth projection past the next 40 years.
"The one thing I want this administration to be known for is that we did not kick the can down the road on the hard items. We have tough items. I think that we need to make sure that we do the public correctly by addressing those items and finding solutions and not more problems," Fletcher said.
"We don't want it to be where crime gets out of control and we are behind the curve and trying to catch up. We always want to be and stay proactive and not reactive," Morales said.
The North Port City Commission is holding a special meeting at 1 p.m. on March 7 at city hall.
They'll present recommendations for the new headquarters regarding size, cost, and avenues to raise funds for the building.