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Medford eyes city office expansion The city might ask voters for at least $4 million to build a new police station By MELISSA MARTIN The Medford City Council may ask voters to pay for a new police station, may add two stories to the Lausmann Annex and may begin this summer making City Hall earthquake safe. City Council members Thursday considered how to make room for a city staff that is expected to grow by 104 people in 20 years. They also talked about the need to protect employees from having City Hall collapse on them in the event of a major earthquake. "We have the money in hand to do it, and we have a financial plan that's workable," said Councilman Bill Moore. Here are the plan and the costs that the council reached a consensus on during a Thursday study session: - Begin seismic retrofitting at City Hall this summer, $650,000. - Build two more floors onto the Lausmann Annex and possibly move the parks and recreation department to the Santo Community Center, $2.9 million. - Complete the parking lot at 10th and Holly streets by adding 39 spaces, $185,000. - Consider asking voters to approve a serial levy to build a new police station at an undetermined site, $4-5 million. The city would pay for the annex addition and the City Hall upgrades in two ways, said Jef Faw, deputy city manager. The city would use $2.5 million reserved from a $4 million bond sale in 2000. The city used $1.5 million from the bond sale to help pay down a pension debt owed to the public employees retirement system (PERS). The remaining $400,000 needed for the annex addition would come from the city manager's office, assessing each city department a fee based on the number of employees. Earlier this year, the city spent $35,000 to hire Portland architect Jeffrey Reaves of Group MacKenzie to study space needs. Reaves came up with five ways to meet demands for a staff growing 1.9 percent per year. The architect was not asked to look at parking needs for the 330 full-time employees predicted to work for the city of Medford within 20 years. Currently, there are 419 full-time and part-time employees, with 226 of them having offices downtown and the rest working at fire stations, the service center or the water or wastewater treatment plants. "We didn't ask them to look at parking needs because we want to encourage carpooling and telecommuting," said Faw, noting that the legal department might be a candidate for working from home offices. At Thursday's study session, council members Claudette Moore, Bill Moore, Skip Knight, John Michaels and Sal Esquivel gave a thumbs-up for the city manager's plan. Councilmen Jim Key and Bob Strosser opposed the plan because they prefer the police department be located on the bottom floors, not the upper level, of the annex. "People shouldn't have to travel up several floors to get essential services from the police," Strosser said. Key echoed several council members in supporting a new police station. "I believe we need a separate facility for police," Key said. "I'd be willing to ask the public for a police levy to build a new building." Police Chief Eric Mellgren said a new police station would allow him to bring his scattered force into one location. Currently, officers and vehicles are scattered across the city, from City Hall, the service center and Santo Community Center to the downtown parking garage. But it's likely that the part of the police department that conducts business with the public would move to the Lausmann Annex, he said. "It's the council's desire for people to come to this campus to talk to police," Mellgren said. "Right now, when you walk in City Hall, they find faceless halls and you don't talk to real people." A new police station would take priority over a Lausmann Annex addition because the city needs to relocate its central communication, or 911 center, from the bowels of City Hall, a 1967 building that likely wouldn't survive a major earthquake. If the city builds a new police station, central communications could be located with it. Medford provides dispatch services for Central Point police and may soon provide for Ashland police, Faw said. Council members rejected the ideas - none of which included City Hall seismic upgrades - presented by Reaves on Thursday. Council members said they want to hold public hearings before deciding the fate of the Carnegie building once the library moves to its new downtown location. Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.