New station so close, yet so far

Aurora police aren't yet counting down the days until they move into their new building.

But they think about it every day.

Though the new police complex won't be finished for a few years, it can't come fast enough for most officers.

They're so eager to get out of their old, cramped building, Cmdr. Joe Groom said, they continually ask for construction updates.

Work is on schedule for one building to open by late next year, part of a headquarters project that could cost between $60 million and $80 million, city leaders said this week.

Workers spent the summer prepping the site at 1200 E. Indian Trail Road. They'll start installing utilities this week.

The project will include a two-story parking garage, a training and support building and police headquarters.

For officers, it'll be a world of difference from their 42,000-square-foot building at 350 N. River St.

"There is no comparison," Groom said.

Built in the mid-1960s, the facility has become "a piece of junk," Chief William Powell said recently. Routine maintenance alone is costing about $1 million a year.

The department's air-conditioning system broke this summer, leaving officers sweltering in 90-degree heat for about a week, Groom said.

The facility wasn't built to handle modern technology, and there simply isn't enough room to house the growing department.

"Everyone's on top of each other; it's so overcrowded," Groom said. "There's no parking."

The foundation is scheduled to be poured in November or December, city project manager Barbara Kattermann said.

The first floor of a 20,000-square-foot parking garage will hold the city's squad cars. There will be public parking for about 500.

A 40,000-square-foot training and support building will hold a firing range, evidence lab and more. That facility could open late next year.

The centralized 158,000-square-foot main headquarters will be finished last and should open in late 2009 or early 2010.

Groom and others already are imagining what it would be like having their own work areas, sufficient locker space and working air conditioning.

A 26-acre site will house the three facilities, though they'll only take up about half the property, Kattermann said. The land also includes a retention pond and a 6-acre parcel for future city use.

The current police station eventually will be demolished and the site will be incorporated into the city's master plan for River Edge Park.

"There's not much more the city could do in that space," city spokesman Carie Anne Ergo said.

Police, for one, likely will be happy to say goodbye.

"I'm not going to miss a thing," Groom said.