Discovery of fill stalls police station plan

BANGOR – The discovery of fill on the site of a proposed new police station could tack on an additional $2 million to the project or, at the very least, delay the project as developers look for cost-saving measures or alternatives.

“We’re on hold,” said Bangor Police Chief Don Winslow after he and city councilors and officials were briefed at a workshop Monday afternoon about the status of what was once an $8 million project.

With construction expected to start this summer, developers recently discovered the site of the proposed five-story police station included an area of fill, loose earth containing debris that will need expensive buttressing if it is to support the new building.

City officials said the fill ranged from 8 feet below the surface to as deep as 40 feet.

As a result, city officials and project developers will be reviewing the project over the next three to four weeks, looking for places where the project could be reduced without substantially affecting its intent: to provide badly needed space for the police department.

One suggestion was to reduce the number of floors from five to four, although at least one councilor suggested taking another look at other sites.

During the workshop, City Manager Ed Barrett made the distinction between cutting back and cutting corners. Saving money by installing a roof that would last only 10 years rather than spending more to install one that would last 50 years wouldn’t make sense, he said.

“We don’t want to move into a new building that doesn’t work,” Barrett said.

Even before the workshop started, there were signs that progress was being made in the project to replace the police station, which was built in 1940 to house the jail and county offices.

Bangor City Solicitor Norman Heitmann said last week the city reached an agreement in principle with the landowner abutting the existing police station to purchase 60 feet of frontage for construction of the new building.

The price for the land is $10,000. Buying the whole property, on which an apartment building sits, isn’t necessary, Heitmann said.

The project called for razing the existing building and constructing the new five-story building nearby along with a separate single-story annex that would include a firing range.

A parking garage would be built where part of the current police station stands.