The city of Westerville is looking to build a new police department.
“When our current building was built, we had about half the number of officers that we have right now,” said Westerville Interim Police Chief, Charles Chandler.
Chandler explains the police department has grown so much, their investigation unit works out of the old post office across the street from the actual police department.
“There's a lot of going back and forth across the street. Evidence is over here, things are separated and split up,” Chandler said.
An issue many taxpayers may not have been aware of but will be come November, if not before. The city is placing a $15 million bond issue on the ballot.
They are asking taxpayers to pay for a new police department headquarters, on land the city already owns on Huber Boulevard.
“I think if you come and look at the building, the lack of training space that we have, the condition of our range. We're going to double the size of our range and have a modern range,” Chandler said.
The police department is split up between three buildings, with about 40,000 square feet combined. If the November ballot issue is approved, after renovations, they would have more than 60,000 square feet, and everyone would be able to be housed under one roof.
“It's truly going to be a full-service criminal justice building. There will be secure entrances for prisoners for mayor's court. We'll have secured parking, which we don't have here now,” Chandler said.
For every $100,000 valuation of your property, it would cost $2.80 a month after 2021.