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Police chief requests up to $145,000 to build or retrofit training facility in former salt structure
Summary
The police chief asked council for budget authority not to exceed $145,000 to build or retrofit a training facility in the city's salt storage structure; the chief said engineers are still assessing whether retrofit is feasible and funding would come from identified salary savings.
Police Chief presented a request to the Coeur d'Alene City Council for authority to spend up to $145,000 to either retrofit the city's existing salt storage structure or to build a new training facility for the police department.
The chief said the site under consideration is a salt structure currently used by the streets and water departments adjacent to the Police Support Services Building. He told the council that engineers have identified structural issues — in particular how roof trusses and joists align — and that an engineer was consulting a truss specialist to determine whether retrofit would be feasible and cost-effective. "The problem lies with the way that the roof is designed and the trusses," the Police Chief said.
The chief asked for authorization "not to exceed a hundred and $45,000" so staff could proceed with either a remodel of the existing structure or a complete rebuild, noting that a prior figure presented to council had been $135,000 and he added $10,000 to the current request to cover potential disposal fees if city crews perform demolition. The chief told the council that he had "identified salary savings to cover the cost of this facility," a point raised by Councilmember Christy during questioning.
Council members and staff described limited training options before the request: the department has used an abandoned building for short periods, occasional bays at the fire department and outdoor sessions in good weather. The chief said that without a dedicated indoor facility, scheduling means half the department may receive training months after the other half because of shift overlaps and limited overlap days. He also described the use of simunitions for force-on-force training and the limitations of conducting that training in shared fire-department space. "It's really problematic...having folks out there for, you know, 10 hours in the snow or or ice," the chief said, describing winter training constraints.
Councilmember Kenny expressed concern about whether the proposed footprint and budget would be sufficient, saying the council should avoid having to "touch something twice" by underbuilding now and having to expand later. The chief said the planned design includes movable interior partitions to accommodate vehicles and scenarios, and staff worked with public-works personnel to adjust fencing and site layout to provide additional outdoor space for scenarios involving SWAT and K-9 teams.
No roll-call vote on the requested authorization appears in the provided excerpt; the chief's request was presented as Resolution 25027 and remained under discussion while the chief awaited final engineering information.
