Kenner City Council on June 30 approved a $2,558,630.29 professional services agreement with Linfield, Hunter & Junius Inc. to design a new police emergency operations center and training facility on the city’s north side.

The contract, approved by a 6-0 vote, covers architectural and engineering services for Phase 1 of a facility that will include an indoor firing range, a shoot house, an armory, classrooms and space intended to double as a training academy and an emergency operations center. Chief Kidicana, who discussed the project at the meeting, said the city received $2,500,000 from the state criminal-justice and first-responders fund "for the purpose of doing the professional services part of it, the engineering, the architectural part of it." He added, "Once that work is done, then we'll be able to...spec it out for the construction and see what...the cost estimates would be."

Why it matters: the design contract is a first step to make the project shovel-ready and to seek construction financing from state or federal sources. Chief Kidicana told the council the design phase is required before the city can draw additional construction funds and that Baton Rouge oversight will review the work.

Council members who spoke supported moving quickly on the design. Councilman Bridal asked whether Kenner would contribute local funds; Chief Kidicana said the current agreement is paid with state money, though a local match could be discussed when construction funding is sought. Councilman Wilmot and others praised the effort to secure outside funding and noted the operational benefits of a local training range — particularly that officers currently travel out of town to qualify.

No changes to the contract price were proposed during the meeting. Chief Kidicana explained the procurement approach: professional services for architecture and engineering are commonly selected on qualifications rather than price and then negotiated afterward. He told the council: "State and federal law mandate that you do it or law and policy mandate should do it by qualifications. So we can't bid this work out...we do have a qualified vendor qualified on a local city, state, and federal level to do this project."

The council approved the ordinance by voice vote 6-0. The project will proceed with the design phase; additional council approvals will be required for construction-phase funding and any local matching commitments.