Holden police seek more room Council subcommittee rejects options for temporary space

HOLDEN – The Holden Police Department needs more space than the cramped quarters it shares with the Fire Department in the basement of the town office on U.S. Route 1A, according to department members.

A two-member Town Council subcommittee has researched options to provide temporary “breathing room” for the nine-member Police Department, but the buildings under consideration did not meet with their approval, and the subcommittee is expected to recommend holding off on any immediate action when the Town Council next meets in October.

Police Chief Gene Worcester manages a staff of two full-time and seven part-time police officers. All of the paperwork is done in an 8-by-10-foot cubicle that includes two computers, the police chief said. Worcester said operating space “becomes difficult” when officers want to do reports and he needs to do administrative work.

Another issue is privacy, or the lack thereof. There is a room where a door can be closed to interview people, but in some instances officers do not want the door closed because of ventilation or safety issues or when a female suspect is being interviewed by a male police officer.

Worcester cited the advantages of being located near the Fire Department; mainly, to foster good working relationships between the two essential town entities.

Town Councilors Ellen Campbell and Ralph McLeod researched suggestions to improve space problems at least temporarily, including a portable classroom building that has become available at the Eddington Elementary School which is part of SAD 63 (Holden, Eddington, Clifton). It would cost about $40,000 to get the building moved and retrofitted for use as a police office. The building also has electric heat, which is considered quite expensive.

The two councilors this week met with Town Manager Larry Varisco, Worcester and Public Safety Director Jim Ellis, and decided not to recommend the portable classroom building or another soon-to-be vacant building which now houses the recycling facility for the town.

Varisco said Tuesday the group decided “to look at it more closely than to make it a real fast hurry-up job.”

A few years ago, preliminary drawings were created and estimates figured to add on to the town office for expanded police and fire departments. The tab for such a project ranged between $700,000 and $1 million, which was considered too expensive. “It would be a major undertaking,” Varisco said. Given the economic times, the issue was put on hold back then, and it is about to be stalled again.

“We’ll continue to look at the situation,” Varisco said. “At the moment, it doesn’t look like we’ll do anything with a portable classroom.”

For now, “we don’t want to rush into something and spend $50,000 and have it not be what we want,” Varisco said.