Photo: Paris Police Chief Ricky Watson, foreground, shows city officials the cramped office spaces in the police department. From left are Commissioner Sam Tharpe, Mayor Kathy Ray, and Commissioners Vickey Roberts and Jackie Jones. (Shannon McFarlin photo).
By Shannon McFarlin News Director
Paris, Tenn.–Meeting for a special one-topic work session Thursday morning, the Paris City Commission unanimously put its stamp of approval on construction of a new two-story municipal building that will contain City Hall, the Paris Police Department and a small fire station.
The green light followed a tour of the current City Hall for a first-hand view of cramped and inadequate conditions for the police and fire departments. The tours were conducted by Police Chief Ricky Watson and Fire Chief Jamie Hinson.
Moving ahead allows City Manager Kim Foster to file an application with the USDA for a loan for the project. USDA personnel were present at the session to answer questions, as were staff from TLM, the engineering/architectural firm designing the project.
The new municipal building will be located near the current City Hall on property already owned by the city. The project would include plenty of public parking “and gives us room for future growth,” Foster said.
The small fire station that will be included in the building project is separate from the fire department that will be built on Hwy. 79S. The small fire station will include one garage bay and two sleeping rooms and allow the department to continue having a downtown presence; whereas the new fire department will be a six-bay facility.
The small downtown fire station will be the site of the fire department’s ladder truck because, Foster said, “most of the buildings that would require a ladder truck (in case of fire) are downtown.”
Foster said the current plan represents “close to five years in process” and said, “I’m excited about this. I want our employees in a new space.”
Ginger French of the TLM engineering/architectural firm said, “This building (current City Hall) will stay 100 percent operational during the project”.
In addition to the tours, City Commissioners were presented with two options with site plans and floor plans showing exactly what each option would entail. French noted that the new Municipal Hall will honor local history and include elements of the courthouse and former City Hall building (that was located on Wood St.). “We want to give a nod to the original structures in our designs,” she said.
Option 1, which is what commissioners ultimately chose, costs an estimated $19,406,999 and will be 38,293 square feet. The City Hall area would include lobby space to different departments, large council meeting room, community room, increased area for building and codes department. It also would include much-needed space for the police department, including work areas, evidence rooms, storage, weapons room, room to store confiscated drugs, a sally port, bigger offices for chief, assistant chief, lieutenants, larger locker areas, public reception area, police training room, meeting room, plus the small fire station with one bay and two sleeping rooms.
During the tour of the police department, Chief Watson pointed out the cramped spaces throughout the department and said, “This (current facility) has served its purpose. It was built for a department of 12 and we now have 30-32 officers. We’ve been using every inch of space that we have.”
There are cramped quarters throughout the department, including offices, evidence room, officers’ spaces, locker rooms. There is no interrogation room nor space large enough for officers to meet together, evidence rooms and storage areas are very small, and locker areas are very cramped.
Watson noted there is no fresh air circulating through the entire building and no fire alarms, either. Evidence room is inadequate for today’s police departments, with very little space and no place to even hang clothes involved in homicides to dry. “All we have is a closet and it’s with all the other evidence,” he said.
On the tour of the fire department, Fire Chief Jamie Hinson said, “We put things—stuff them anyplace where we can.”
Hinson said, “We have issues with mold and mildew, with no air circulating through here and one of our biggest issues for this facility is drainage. At least twice a year we have to work on the problem again.”