The Wayland City
Council Monday night agreed to pat $7,500 to In-form Architects of Kalamazoo for planning the design of a public safety building on Reno Drive near the industrial park.
The council, following the recommendation of the Public Safety Committee, decided to commit the money from the city’s Gun Lake Casino revenue sharing fund to pay for the service. The plans are to have the building house City of Wayland police and troopers and personnel from the Michigan State Police.
City Manager Mike Selden said he hopes representatives from the city can meet with architect design technicians within the next four months to come up with a design. He said it has not been determined yet whether the city will seek local funding for the structure or find a grant from the state.
Selden said he w
as impressed with the Kalamazoo firm.
“They seemed to offer us a lot more in getting people involved in what’s going on,” he said.
The city manager added that casino funds are well suited to this kind of expenditure.
“This is more or an exploratory thing and we’ve done this kind of thing (used casino funds) in the past.”
The idea of constructing a new public safety building has been bandied about for some time. City police are interested in finding a new home and would like to turn current quarters on West Main Street over to the fire department entirely. The two public safety agencies now share the building at the corner of Church and West Superior.
State Police officials have made no official comment about the idea, but it is no secret that the current facility on North Main Street no longer can adequately handle the needs of troopers, dispatchers and officials. The building has been in operation now for more than 50 years.
Other than funding the professional design services, city officials took no other action, insisting that it’s just a start.
