"The overall goal is to come together to see if we can meet the needs and serve the community and their needs moving forward," Yarbrough said.
The history
The Hutto Police Department facility was built in 2002 when the city's population was only 2,971 people, according to Yarbrough. Including the main facility and other buildings utilized by the department, Hutto Police has about 18,826 square feet at its disposal.
Yarbrough described the largest concerns with the current facility, including:
- Railroad tracks located directly in front of the building limit expansion potential and accessibility.
- Traffic congestion impacts call time.
- Limited space inside the building negates privacy.
- Buildings originally built for storage now house critical operations and staff.
- Maintenance issues due to age of facilities
- Limited parking
To meet the needs of the city today, Yarbrough said that the team would need at least a 26,000-square-foot facility, not accounting for future growth.
"Delaying decisions or delaying our response to anything like this doesn't reduce the need for that and it doesn't reduce the eventual cost," Yarbrough said.
In case you missed it
City Council heard an initial presentation with several options for a future police operations expansion June 5. Costs for the facility concepts ranged from $56 million to $150 million, with Mayor Mike Snyder expressing a desire to see justice center options at a lower price point.
Yarbrough laid out three more concepts for a justice center facility at the July 17 meeting. These options range from $50 million to $65.3 million and include a reduction of features outlined in the initial presentation.
“We are not asking for anything that is even remotely luxurious,” Yarbrough said.
Each of the three concepts includes a 45,914-square-foot main police facility, with other features such as possible court space and a police asset garage. A training center and dedicated emergency operations center were not included in these plans. Adding an in-house 911 dispatch would contribute additional costs.
What they're saying
Council discussed the possibility of putting a bond for the police facility on the May ballot.
"I hope the public hears the urgency that's needed for something like this because hearing that [it was] built in 2002 [for] seven officers, that's just not going to cut it," Place 1 council member Brian Thompson said. "And so I'm hoping that's a real discussion that we can have whenever budget season comes."
Mayor Mike Snyder acknowledged other city departments in need of new facilities.
"There's gotta be a way to cut this down, because once we get done with public works, we got to go to parks, and then we got the library people wanting a new library," Snyder said. "I'm going 'Man, how do you build $300 million in facilities and make everybody happy and no one get mad at the other group?'"
