City hears multi‑million dollar plan to replace undersized police and fire facilities

City consultants told the Eastlake City Council that the city’s police and fire facilities are undersized and showing signs of age, and presented a phased plan that would rebuild service facilities, relocate salt storage and construct a new police station.

“Just to kind of recap the process, we started with a series of surveys to the police department and the fire department, and the surveys returned a series of their needs,” said Michael Bartlett, a firm representative who spoke to the council. Bartlett said the firm quantified room‑by‑room square footage needs and identified specific functional deficiencies in both departments.

The presentation said the police department is currently sized for about 40 officers and is short roughly 2,000 square feet; staff and consultants said the city should plan for roughly 10 additional officers over the next five to 10 years. Bartlett said fire station spaces lack common modern design elements such as separated “hot” and “cold” zones for contaminated equipment and adequate gear locker locations.

The consultant outlined a site plan that would allow phased construction: first relocating the city’s salt storage yard, increasing capacity from 3,500 tons to about 5,000 tons, then building a larger service yard and a new police station on the freed area. Bartlett said two existing cell‑tower leases sit in the proposed footprint and will need to be addressed in later discussions.

Cost estimates given during the presentation varied by scope. Bartlett said the police station concept was “somewhere below $12,000,000 to $13,000,000,” and that a broader capital expenditure budget for the full program was “somewhere between $29,000,000 and $31,000,000,” with an additional, less‑precise figure later described as “33 and, I don't know, dollars 36,000,000 total.”

The consultant said a full rebuild would take about 24 to 30 months and stressed that renovating in place presents complications: “The cost to renovate plus the temporary housing, the temporary jail, relocating the dispatch center … the increase in cost for new station versus preparing, and you're still up with a full building that's renovated,” Bartlett said, adding that once structural elements are exposed renovation costs can escalate.

City staff and the consultant also described aging building systems, including heating, cooling and electrical distribution; the presentation noted infrared testing that showed hot spots in electrical panels and mold in a police department gun range area. Bartlett described degraded ceilings and an aging climate control system that will need replacement within a few years.

Council members asked about phasing and temporary operations during construction; the consultant said the proposed approach would avoid prolonged temporary relocations by sequencing work around the relocated salt yard and service functions. Bartlett also mentioned a federal tax‑credit program tied to HVAC and mechanical upgrades that could offset a portion of upfront costs, though he said the credit requires third‑party financing and up‑front payments.

The council did not take a vote to adopt a specific design or funding plan during the presentation. No formal motion or funding decision was recorded in the meeting transcript for the facilities project.

The consultant and staff indicated further conversations will be needed about cell‑tower leases, exact construction phasing, and which funding sources to pursue before the council would be asked to commit to a final plan.