HOLDEN – The 10-by-10-foot basement room in the Town Hall set aside for the Police Department is just not big enough, so town leaders have decided to lease a temporary building.

“It’s very, very difficult for them to continue to operate where they are,” Town Manager Larry Varisco said Friday. “They’re cramped.”

The fire and police departments share space at the town’s municipal building, but neither is accessible to the handicapped because the departments are located in the basement.

Holden is leasing a 24-by-60-foot temporary building for the Police Department that will be placed near the town’s highway garage. The double-wide modular structure should be installed by the end of the year.

“It’s pretty much a Band-Aid fix right now,” Varisco said. “They need something. It does give them a little space.”

Earlier this year, town residents resoundingly turned down a proposal for a $1.8 million public safety building to accommodate the Fire Department. It had included renovating the current town hall space used by the Fire Department into space for the Police Department.

After the June meeting, the Town Council created a public safety facility subcommittee to look into solving the space and Americans with Disabilities Act issues in the shared public safety areas at Town Hall.

The committee recommended the temporary building.

In addition to a tight working space, another disadvantage is the lack of privacy, Sgt. Gene Fizell has said. The single office is shared by the police chief, Fizell and seven other part-time officers.

The new temporary building probably will be split into four offices, Varisco said.

Town leaders still are discussing how to pay the installation costs – pay them upfront or add them to the monthly lease. The lease is estimated at $750 a month.

“We’re calling it a temporary space, but we don’t know” how long the building will be used, the town manager said. “It’s very hard to predict it. This is something we could need for a year, two” or longer.