Police station remains in disrepair, high costs keep new station out of reach

After years of temporary fixes and adjusting the police station to fit the growing department’s needs, high costs keep a new police station out of reach.

From the end of 2020 to March 2023, Town Administrator Derek Sullivan and thePolice Station Study Committee, created to spearhead the new police station project, chaired by resident Clarire Smith, began looking at different places across town to put the new station.

Smith said the committee looked at eight different places including the former Decas Elementary School, an A.D. Makepeace owned property on Main Street, a town-owned property on Minot Avenue and a site on Charge Pond Road. Ultimately, the committee chose to pursue retrofitting Town Hall into a police station in 2022.

The plan would have moved town departments and the Council on Aging to the former Decas Elementary School and the Multi-Service Center. Plans also included turning the ground floor into a dispatch center among other offices, the second floor would have become administrative areas and the basement would house locker rooms, holding cells, a laboratory, evidence and weapon storage and other secure areas.

But everything came to a halt in 2023 when the town was quoted an estimated $44 million for the project.

At the time, the committee envisioned a price tag of around $14 million. However, Sullivan wrote in an email to Wareham Week that rising costs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic nearly tripled the estimate in just a few years.

The $44 million estimate came from architecture and interior design firm Tecton Architects, who was working with the town on the renovation plan. In a 2023 meeting with town officials, Tecton representative Rebecca Hopkins presented a cheaper alternative, a 27,000 square-foot-one-story police station on Main Street.

This plan would have cost the town around $20 million but the end product would have less space than renovating Town Hall. This station would have been able to hold fewer detainees with no space for regional dispatch.

According to Sullivan, this proposal was also too expensiven. He said in order to make this work, the town would’ve had to enter into a proposition 2.5 debt exclusion, a temporary raise in property taxes to fund a specific project. 

He said it was unrealistic given that the town is still paying off the debt exclusion for the new Wareham Elementary School.

“The new station is still on our radar and we want to provide the type of station that our officers deserve but we need to be mindful of the cost impact to the community,” he wrote.

Since 2023, Sullivan said he and Police Chief Walter Correira Jr. continue to talk about the idea of a new police station but until the price tag comes down the new station remains just an idea.

According to Wareham Police Chief Walter Correira, there are several problems with the current station, many of which are related to the size and layout of the station.

“When they moved into the station in 1971 it wasn’t big enough,” Correira said.

The police force has 50 officers on staff and in order to make enough room, Wareham Police Information Sergeant Bryan Whalen said many parts of the station had to be renovated to accommodate more people and storage.

Whalen said there used to be a gun range which has been transformed into a briefing room and locker rooms. The station’s kitchen has also been converted into storage and spaces that used to be one office have been divided into two.

“I think we’ve been creative to the best of our ability with the space that we have but I think we’re kind of bursting at the seams now,” Whalen said.

Another issue the station has is its electrical capabilities. According to Whalen the building could not handle “one more outlet” because much of the department’s equipment, including their vehicles, are electric.

“If we had to add on I don’t know what we would do,” he said. “We’ve had issues with air conditioners that blew out. In terms of electricity we are totally maxed out.”