Police station to move to old AMPI
The Hillsboro Police Department is about to have a new home.
At their regular meeting Tuesday evening, the Hillsboro City Council approved a request to move the police force from its current offices on South Main to the office portion of the former AMPI building.
The city recently bought the building and adjacent sewer and gas lines for $75,000. Until Tuesday, they hadn't officially stated any possibly uses for the property.
Right now, the police department just leases its office on the corner of Grand and Main, just across the street from Emprise Bank. That lease is due to end in January of 2003.
Only general repairs and maintenance, such as painting, need to be done to the office section of the old AMPI, according to City Administrator Steve Garrett.
The biggest expense, he said, will be getting heat into the area for the winter months. When it was used as a dairy plant, the building was steam-heated.
Garrett has already been discussing possible gas heat solutions with a representative from Atmos Energy.
But despite the needed updates, moving the police to the building is the right idea, Garrett said.
"I think it's something that we should do," Garrett said.
Police Chief Dan Kinning agreed. The space in the current office is way too tight, he said.
"(The current space) absolutely doesn't work," Kinning said. "It's way too small."
Another advantage, said councilmember Barney McCarty, is that the city will no longer have to pay rent for the police department's space.
Garrett stressed that the police's move to the former AMPI is only a temporary move. Ultimately, the city may decide to build a new "safety center" at the corner of Ash and Third that would house both police and fire departments together.
Also at the meeting, the council approved the purchase of a new 2003 Ford Crown Victoria for the police force.
The car will be purchased from Hillsboro Ford $22,400. That's without trading in an old vehicle — Kinning decided that the $3,000 trade-in value wasn't worth trading it in. Also, if the force gets another officer next year, as Kinning hopes it does, that officer would use the old car.
The Ford Crown Victoria is the right size for police to install prisoner-holding "cages" and store equipment, Kinning said.
"We need that space," he said.
Midway through Tuesday's meeting, Mayor Delores Dalke called an executive session, citing "trade secrets" as the reason.
Kept in the room were all three council members present (McCarty, Shelby Dirks, and Matt Hiebert), Garrett, city attorney Dan Baldwin, and Darrel Driggers and Mike Kleiber. Len Coryea was not at the meeting
Driggers is chairman of the Hillsboro Management Board, and Kleiber is a member of the Hillsboro Development Corporation.
After a 15-minute long executive session, Mayor Dalke made a motion to give $8,000 plus a possible benefit package to the Hillsboro Management Board for the year 2002. The motion was approved unanimously. There was no discussion.
