New Swampscott police station remains priority

SWAMPSCOTT – One year to the day after an override for a new police station failed, some town officials plan to once again push to build a new police station.A debt exclusion override that would have allowed the town to borrow $6 million to build a new police station on Humphrey Street was defeated by a mere 224 votes.The current station was built in 1938 when the department had less than 20 officers and no women on the force.Police Chief Ronald Madigan, who is on the police station building committee, said the design is almost complete and the committee hopes to meet with the selectmen about the project in the near future.”The need hasn’t changed,” he said. “The problems at the station still exist and need to be addressed. We’re hoping to get things going again.”Selectman Robert Mazow, who is the liaison between the selectmen and police station building committee, said getting a new police station built is a top priority.”It’s far from over,” Mazow said. “The committee looked at size and scale of the project. It won’t be the same product it was last time. A new station is something we need to take a hard look at.”Mazow said the committee is not prepared to release details about the project and it does not have cost estimates, but he expects it to be less than the $6 million that was voted down last year.Selectman Matthew Strauss agreed something needs to be done about the police station.”I don’t want to let it die,” Strauss said. “There is not doubt it needs to be done. Anyone can go over there and see the place is just falling down. I am very much in support of a new station. I just hate to see the police officers working in those conditions.”Madigan said the holding cells, which are used to house up to 270 to 300 detainees a year, are obsolete.Madigan added when prisoners are brought into the station, they have to be taken through areas open to the public and escorted down two flights of narrow stairs to the cells. He said an officer was out for eight months with an injury he received struggling with a prisoner on the stairs leading to cells.Madigan said another issue with the 5,500-foot aging facility is the lack of facilities for female officers, noting that the women’s bathroom is a closet converted into a restroom.Resident William DiMento said he would not dispute the need for a new police station, but doesn’t believe it’s the right time to do it.”It’s fiscally irresponsible,” DiMento said. “The voters voted it down last year and the economy hasn’t improved. We need to wait until economic times improve.”