The town is exploring the possibility of building a public safety complex which could include the Wareham Police and EMS departments, Harbormaster Department, and the Wareham Fire Department.

The Capital Planning Committee has been discussing the idea with town officials as a possible solution to the town's need for a new police station.

The police station "has so many issues with repairs and functionality," said Town Administrator Mark Andrews. Police Chief Richard Stanley "has been very creative in reprogramming the internal part of the building, but it's just not a functional structure as it applies to 21st century public safety."

A public safety complex could potentially save the town some money in the long run.

"It should be more financially feasible to do this as a whole group effort," said Alan Slavin, co-chair of the Capital Planning Committee, which helps the town plan for the purchase of high-cost necessities, such as equipment and new buildings.

The Wareham Fire Department is already looking to move from its Main Street station.

The complex could "centralize repair work [and] dispatching," said Slavin. "It would be easier to put this together - finding grants, finding monies - if we do this with a centralized dispatch" among the police, EMS, harbormaster, and fire department.

The town has approached A.D. Makepeace about using a portion of the company's land off of Charge Pond Road for the complex in what would be a "private/public partnership," Slavin said.

Linda Burke, director of communication and marketing for A.D. Makepeace, says the company has completed preliminary sketches for the complex and began discussions with its board of directors about the idea.

"This is something that we're looking at to see if it works for us and the town is also looking at to see if it looks for them," Burke said.

Burke stressed that the concept is in the very beginning stages and that no decision has been made as to whether Makepeace's site would work.

"All towns and cities are faced with really different economic situations and this is a viable way to have a private enterprise build a facility and lease it back to the town," said Slavin.

Wareham Fire Chief Robert McDuffy said he is happy to explore the idea with the town, as the Fire Department has outgrown its Main Street station.

"We like to think that it's important to be open-minded," McDuffy said.

The Wareham Fire District, which includes the fire and water departments, is autonomous, so any agreement with the town would have to be approved by the district's Prudential Committee and voters.

In June, district voters approved the use of $18,000 to pay for the study and design of a new fire station. McDuffy said a company will analyze what the department does and determine what its needs are as far as a new building goes and the amount of land needed.

The Main Street station has potential flooding issues because of its proximity to the Agawam River.

"We need to be in a location where we're high and dry so we can provide [fast responses] no matter what challenges the weather provides us with," McDuffy said.

The only manned fire house is the Main Street station. The department has unmanned stations on Minot Avenue, in Shangri-La, and in West Wareham.

"Ultimately what we'd like to see happen is to consolidate some of the real estate that we have," said McDuffy. "The thought [with the public safety complex] was, hey, can we pool these needs collectively?"

Cape Cod communities such as Mashpee and Truro have similar facilities in operation. And this isn't the first time a public safety complex has been discussed in Wareham.

In 2005, a volunteer town committee completed a public safety facilities study. After two years of work, the committee recommended that the town build a facility on town-owned land off of Minot Avenue and sell the existing police station.

The facility was proposed to include the police department, EMS, harbormaster, Wareham Fire, and a joint dispatching center.

The Board of Selectmen ultimately did not move forward with the recommendation.

All parties involved in current talks noted that the discussions taking place are informal.

"We've made some inquiries, but I'm trying to really wrap my arms around all the data," Andrews said. "From a conceptual standpoint, we're all looking for efficiencies to bring the lowest possible cost for any capital project."

Claire Smith, who currently serves as Town Moderator but was a member of the 2005 committee that completed the public safety study and another committee in 1995 that completed a separate study on the police station, noted that when the current station was built in the 1970s, it was already too small.

"When they moved in, that building was half the size of what they knew they needed," Smith said, adding that budget constraints caused the scale of the project to be reduced.

The station has been remodeled and rearranged, but the building has never been expanded.