A Woodward Police Department patrol vehicle has been conspicuously parked lately at the corner of Third and Main streets in downtown Woodward, a visible warning to motorists to straighten up and fly right and leave off fiddling with their mobile devices.
More conspicuous yet at Monday night’s meeting of the Woodward City Council was the police station itself, with the council holding preliminary discussions on the state of the station and its need for repairs or replacement.
“We have as a council let it go basically since I’ve been on this council,” Woodward Mayor Todd Folkerts said. “I don’t think we’ve put a dime into that building. There’s some roof leakage. There’s the brick that’s separating from the building itself. There’s some window issues. As near as I can tell, a number to repair it is around $15,000.”
Folkerts also informed the council that a private party has expressed interest in buying the public property — a 10,877-square-foot triangular lot between First and Railroad streets — where the police station now stands. The 3,780-square-foot building, which formerly served as the city’s water department and city hall, was constructed in 1950, according to county records.
“I don’t know who wants to buy this building for sure,” said Woodward City Council member Dave Luke, “but if someone wants to buy this building and bring a business into this community, I think it would be beneficial to this council.”
Selling the old police station would necessitate building a new one. Folkerts said he spoke with a contractor, and together they developed a rough estimate of $31,000 for construction of a 30′ x 50′ shell using 2 x 6 framing. The contractor’s price would include concrete work, a walk-in door, one large garage door and two floor drains but no interior work, he said.
An estimated $25,000 would then be needed to finish the facility, Folkerts said, which could be done using city workers and volunteer labor. The price would cover wiring, insulation and interior construction of bathrooms, offices, a dog kennel and so forth.
“I’m guessing from what I can come up with probably another $10,000 for insulation and the lumber to finish the inside and probably another $10,000 for the wiring,” Folkerts said. “I truly believe for about $55,000, and that’s about $24,000 above the bid for the building, we would have it done.”
“How are you going to pay for it?” asked longtime Woodward resident and budget hawk Merle Shawd.
“We still have about $60,000 from one-cent sales tax from years ago,” Folkerts said, explaining no decisions would be made at Monday’s meeting. “We’re not here tonight saying we’re spending money. It’s an opening of the discussion.”
He said heating and cooling the present police station costs the city about $6,000 a year.
“I realistically believe with good insulation on 2 x 6 walls that we could cut that in half,” Folkerts said. “The real crux of this is that our police station spends a huge amount on utilities in a year for more building than what we need for a police station. So a cost savings of $3,000 a year or somewhere thereabouts, again, if we can get enough out of the old building that it’s not huge chunk coming out from one-cent sales, in six or seven years you’ve paid for a new building.”
Folkerts encouraged the council to consider the calculations and decide what options to explore.
“I do believe if we do nothing,” he said, “we have to look at spending $15,000 before that building just basically turns to junk, and that’s not really what we, in my world, should be doing as taking care of the taxpayers. We can’t just let it fall down around itself.”
Luke urged selling the city lot.
“I guess my opinion is I think it would be in the city’s best interest, if we have people that are interested in purchasing that property, to pursue that,” Luke said. “I guess I would entertain taking bids, knowing that that work needed to be done and let whoever decides they want to buy it fix it.”
Folkerts said the city will “need to be up front about what that building needs for repair, so whoever would bid on it would know they were going to have to put some money in it.”
Luke made a motion “to move forward with the proposed sale of the old police station.” Council member Mary Bustand seconded Luke’s motion, and Council members Jim Gough and Ashvin Patel joined them in voting aye. Council member Kelly Kirts abstained from voting on the motion.
In other business, the council approved a pay request from Woodruff Construction for $683,015.40 for ongoing work at the waste water treatment facility. A pay request from Veenstra and Kim Engineering for $13,198.88 for ongoing engineering consultancy was also approved.
