Bangor police station issue resurfaces

BANGOR – Though most believed the matter settled, it appears that the site of the city’s next police station is still up in the air.

City councilors are expected to revisit next week their near unanimous vote designating a parcel near Bangor International Airport as the site for the new police station.

The matter, decided May 24 by an 8-1 vote, is slated to be reconsidered during the council’s next regular meeting, set for 7:30 p.m. Monday, June 14.

It is being brought back before the council at the request of Councilor Annie Allen.

On Monday, Allen said her decision was prompted by telephone calls and e-mail from residents and businesspeople unhappy with the council’s decision to scuttle the original site chosen last September near the corner of Main and Cedar streets.

“I’ve heard from a lot of people who want the police station to stay downtown because it’s more visible and more accessible to the public,” said Allen, one of the eight who voted to locate the new police station off Maine Avenue. The site now is occupied by the University of Maine Systems chancellor’s office but will become vacant next June, when UMS moves its 120 employees from 120 Maine Ave. into the W.T. Grant Building downtown as part of a property swap with the city.

Council Chairman Dan Tremble, however, saw little merit in reopening the matter, especially given the absence of new information. He also said he had not heard much support in the community for going back to the original site, which he earlier said was more suited to economic development.

“It wasn’t even a close vote,” Tremble said. “I would rather it not come up again. It makes us look foolish to the public.”

In Bangor, individual councilors are permitted to add items to the meeting agenda by tradition. A motion and a second calling for reconsideration are needed to put the issue in front of the councilors. A decision to go back to the original site would require a simple majority vote.

Councilor Gerry Palmer, who cast the sole vote in opposition of the Maine Avenue site, said he would second Allen’s motion.

“I’m pleased that Councilor Allen has had a change of heart,” said Palmer, a proponent of keeping the police station downtown, where he believes a strong police presence is needed most.

Palmer noted that roughly 1,000 people reside downtown, many of whom depend greatly on services available at the police station, which they now can walk to. He further said that locating the new station near the airport could result in confusion for residents and visitors expecting to find it on Main Street rather than Maine Avenue.

Rep. Patricia Blanchette, a former mayor, attended last month’s council meeting as a resident and taxpayer – and as a critic of the Maine Avenue plan.

“They’re not thinking beyond the length of their own damned noses,” she said, citing the downtown site’s proximity to Bangor’s District and county courts, the county jailhouse, the regional homeless shelters for adults and teens, and the bus station, which regularly delivers transients into the city.

She also said last month’s decision was made in haste when compared to the lengthy process that led to the downtown site.

For Police Chief Don Winslow, Allen’s request to revisit the location means his department’s future home will remain in limbo a little while longer.

“I’m done getting my hopes up until there’s a shovel in the ground,” Winslow said Monday.

He noted, however, that a decision to revert to the downtown site likely would not result in major delays, given the extensive legwork already done for that location.

Although he acknowledged he originally preferred the downtown site, he said he had been forced to make workspace concessions at the Main Street site to keep the project within its $6.5 million budget.

The city is getting ready to build a new police station because the current one on Court Street is too small and in such poor condition that the city’s insurer this spring terminated property and liability coverage.

The city acquired the downtown site for $775,000. However, the possibility that using the Maine Avenue site could be significantly cheaper warranted consideration and further study.

The projected initial cost to develop the Maine Avenue site is $5.6 million. But the approximately $1 million in savings to the city is negated by lost tax and rental revenue.

With long-range development and other costs for the two sites being more or less equal, councilors based their decision on such criteria as emergency response time, space and parking needs, vehicle circulation, visibility and security, to name a few.

A factor that prompted several councilors to choose the site near the airport was that the downtown site offered limited space for growth.