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A recent analysis identified several inadequacies at the Crescent City Police Department including the lack of covered vehicle storage, secure parking for staff and an evidence room that was short on space.

But, though the study provided several options for an upgraded station, putting Crescent City in a better position to obtain grants or a loan for the project, 2019 building codes makes finding a new home for its police force a challenge.

Those codes addressed tsunamis and critical facilities, City Manager Eric Wier told the Councilors on Monday. He pulled up a tsunami inundation zone map, which showed that much of Crescent City is in the run-up zone.

“The police department is a critical facility like a hospital, like a police department. Per the new building code, they cannot be built in the tsunami run-up or inundation zone,” Wier said. “The current police department is right on the edge of that zone.”

The Crescent City Police Station sits at the corner of 7th and G streets.

According to Wier, emergency officials are expected to put out new inundation maps for Del Norte County in spring 2021. This means the current inundation zone could changed, he said, and “it’s probably not going to change for the better.”

The tsunami inundation maps show the areas that could be underwater in a near-show Cascadia event, Wier said. He noted that in some places, parts of Washington Boulevard at city’s northern most boundaries are in the run-up zone.

“The areas we could look at within city limits are areas such as the Roosevelt Annexation and areas close to Northcrest (Drive) and Hoover (Street),” Wier said. “By the Washington fire station is another area and there are a few areas near 9th Street.”

Using $707,500 in Community Development Block Grant dollars, the city hired Ogden Roemer Wilkerson Architecture, of Southern Oregon, in February 2017 to conduct a facility needs assessment for the police department. ORW worked with interim city manager, Mike Young, and former police chief Ivan Minsal, however finishing the study was challenging due to a number of factors including turnover in city staff.

Both Minsal and Crescent City’s current police chief, Richard Griffin, were able to modify the existing building to meet the department’s needs Wier said Monday.

“They’ve created for rooms for interviews and Chief Griffin has done a great job for the evidence piece of it where they have a great evidence storage and processing facility,” Wier said. “They’re doing what they can, though in a nutshell, it is inadequate for the current needs.”

Wier introduced the options presented in the study for an upgraded police department. The first included adding a second story to the existing building, growing it to approximately $12,000 square feet to accommodate two exits, stairs and elevators. Wier said the estimated cost would be $375 to $400 per square foot for a possible total construction cost of $4.5 million to $5.1 million.

The second option included in the analysis was to build a new single-story police station with space nearby for employee parking. The 11,000 square-foot would cost an estimated $325 to $375 per square foot or $3.5 million to $4.1 million for the total project

The third option is to build a two-story building with adjacent parking. The 12,000 square-foot facility would cost an estimated $350 to $400 per square foot for an estimated total cost of $4.2 million to $4.8 million.

The final option was the most expensive. An elevated one-story police station with a parking structure on the ground level. This 11,000 square foot building would cost $325 to $375 for the police station and an additional $150 to $200 for the parking structure, or a total of about $5.2 million to $6.3 million, Wier said.

“We’re going to use this for the evaluation of future grant options,” Wier told Councilors. “CDBG is oen of those grant opportunities that could be available to us. Some of the rules in the (notice of funding availabilities) change from year to year.”

Loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture could also be an option as the police department continues to outgrow its current home, Wier said.

Though he acknowledged that he and his colleagues have been able to manage in their current home, Griffin said the evidence room is small and may soon make storing and processing evidence a challenge.

Staff parking isn’t secure, though Griffin said they have improved the lighting. There are also no lockers and shower facilities for his staff.

“We’re worried about the stuff we take home to our family,” he said. “We do have that job to provide a safe environment for people who don’t sign up for this job. Or if you simply have an accident, even with something with processing, putting a couple eye wash stations. We don’t have the facility where if you had an accident like that, we could go out and wash ourselves off besides a hose, so looking at stuff like that, the basics that we would like.”

Mayor Pro Tem Heidi Kime advocated for having a new police station, not just within the city limits, but closer to residents than on the outskirts. She noted that if Measure S, Crescent City’s proposed 1 percent sales tax for public safety, passes, the police department may be fully staffed.
“We certainly need a building that will adequately house all of those needs,” she said.

Crescent City Mayor Blake Inscore suggested conducting a time study of how long it would take police officers to respond to calls from Washington Boulevard or elsewhere outside the tsunami inundation zone versus where the station currently is. He also urged Councilors to “think outside the box” for potential properties that might fit the police department’s needs.

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