By Rick Cohler
Contributing Writer
SEYMOUR – Following unanimous approval from the Seymour City Council on Feb. 13, plans to move the Seymour Police Department from an adjacent building into the Municipal Building are finalized and will move forward.
The city will use a portion of a $336,525 American Rescue Plan Grant to fund the move.
The police department moved out of the Municipal Building and into the former Homestead Savings and Loan building adjacent to city hall in June of 1990 and has outgrown its facility.
Discussions about moving the police department back into the Municipal Building have periodically surfaced since the Seymour Fire Department moved out of the Municipal Building in 2002 for the new Mainline Drive fire station.
New walls, doors and windows will be added, and the evidence rooms and offices will be renovated.
New HVAC will also be installed for that portion of the building. Seymour Mayor Ryan Kraft said the move will help centralize city services.
“One of our objectives over the past couple years has been to consolidate infrastructure wherever we can; servers, staff and resources,” he said. “By bringing the police department back into this building we can accomplish a lot of those goals.”
Seymour Police Chief Isaac Schultz leads a department of six full-time officers, including himself, and said the move will help the department be more efficient in serving the city.
“We’re the first point of contact for people even if it is something like a broken water main,” he said, saying it will help the department remain a very good police department for a long time.
“I hope the public sees this as a great investment,” he added.
The move will provide better space for evidence storage as the current evidence room is in an old vault in the Municipal Building basement which is crowded and has no proper ventilation.
The new area will also have better interview facilities and an improved place for members of the public to discuss complaints with officers.
City Administrator Sean Hutchinson said the ARPA funds were designed to be used for one-time expenditures, so the police department move and Municipal Building remodeling were a good fit for the grant.
McMahon and Associates of Neenah was selected as the consultants and architects for the project, and with Council approval, the firm will now draw up detailed plans.
“We focused on what was needed and not just wanted,” Hutchinson said. “This will provide offices for the chief, the officers, a locker room and equipment all in one location.”
Bids for the remodeling are expected to be let in April.