Public gets first look at police station Officials cut ribbon on new facility

BANGOR – Hampden resident Berta Burbank watched the past 15 months as the city’s new police station was constructed on Summer Street. She decided to stop by Thursday when doors opened to the public for the first time.

She was accompanied by her 91/2-year-old grandson.

“We’re just so excited,” she said while standing in the new police station lobby. “I’ve been waiting because I drive by every day on my way to work. I’ve been watching this building take shape.”

There is no comparison between the Court Street police station, which was built in 1939, and the new Summer Street station, Burbank and her grandson, Jack Day of Bangor, agreed Thursday.

“I’ve been in the old one and it was kind of old,” Jack Day said, referring to a visit he made with his father to report an accident. “When you go in here, you say, ‘Wow, how old was the other place?'”

His grandmother added, “Compared to what they have, it’s amazing.”

The two stood in the back as the lobby filled with residents, city and Penobscot County officials and reporters for the official ribbon cutting.

At the same time, Fred and Debbie Bryant, former police officers and curators of the Bangor Police Museum, set up displays in the station’s museum area, located in a hexagon-shaped room to the left of the Summer Street station’s front entrance.

Bangor Police Department artifacts, including numerous hats and badges officers have worn over the past 170 years, old photos and mannequins dressed in historical garb, were put on exhibit in glass display cases by the Bryants. And a display of old handcuffs was scheduled to arrive later.

“We’re going to try and move the [refurbished 1936] paddy wagon in tomorrow,” Debbie Bryant said.

The museum will be enhanced by historic life-sized backgrounds, created and donated by a local printer, that will be placed behind the mannequins before the museum opens, likely in early January.

“That will be nice,” Burbank said. “We’ll be back to see that.”

Penobscot County Sheriff Glenn Ross said he was at the opening because he wanted to see history in the making.

“Envious is how I’d describe it as a law enforcement officer,” he said. “This place is state-of-the-art.”

Ross said plans are already in the works to partner with Bangor police to use certain aspects of the new station, such as the indoor firing range.

Bangor’s dispatch center moved to the station two weeks ago, and police officers began making the move on Thursday and are expected to finish today.

For the ribbon cutting, Bangor city councilors, project manager Lt. Ron Gastia and Police Chief Don Winslow, as well as representatives from Bangor architectural firm WBRC Architects/Engineers and Brewer contractor Nickerson & O’Day Inc., gathered together and thanked each other, the city and its residents for supporting the $8 million project.

“This is a great day for the city of Bangor and this is a great day for the Bangor Police Department,” Winslow said.

The police chief and members of the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce held the ribbon that was cut by Mayor Richard Greene.

“Congratulations,” is what Greene simply said as the big gold scissors he was holding cut through the red ribbon.