Sarnia police facilities review underway

As an engineering firm looks deeper into potential shortcomings at Sarnia’s police station, the city’s police board is recommended city and police personnel team up to come up with a facilities plan.

Whether that means upgrades to the existing station, building new, or some alternative, remains to be seen, said police services board chair Paul Wiersma.

“I wouldn’t call it an emergency that we need to replace the building immediately, but the reality is at some point we will have to do something,” he said.

Plans for police facilities, like the 36-year-old Sarnia service’s headquarters, are required under the Police Services Act, Wiersma said.

“And essentially, well, we don’t really have a plan, to be honest,” he said.

A $36,000 building-condition assessment was completed last year by Windsor-based Dillon Consulting Ltd., looking into things such as accessibility, the condition of the building’s infrastructure, and how well it complies with building and health and safety requirements, police chief Derek Davis said.

That report found about $4.4-million needs to be invested immediately and during the next five years, Wiersma said.

And that doesn’t include “police-specific operational requirements” such as security, prisoner care and control and weapons storage, Davis said.

In May, the police board unanimously approved Dillon Consulting to conduct another $38,000 study, this time looking at those sorts of functional requirements.

The results should help the proposed project team, to be made up of police and city personnel, craft recommendations for the police board and city council to consider, Wiersma said.

“Obviously, one option is stay in the current facility,” he said. “Another option is to build a new facility; but there may be other options, too, and we need to explore those.”

City council considers July 10 whether to approve the project team proposal.

City staff recommend treasurer Jane Qi and facilities manager Tom Burnard be appointed.

If approved, the police board would consider who to supplement from the police services side when it next meets July 27, Wiersma said.

The Christina Street headquarters was designed for Sarnia’s 106-officer service before the city amalgamated with Clearwater Township in the 1990s, said George Vandenberg, a police board member and city councilor.

Since then, the number of officers has grown to 124, he said.

He supports the review and the project team proposal, he said.

“The building is getting filled with more people and the same amount of space,” he said, adding “it needs work.”

There’s also relatively little in a building replacement reserve fund, expected to finish 2023 with $374,000, Wiersma said, adding it’s been used instead for facility maintenance.

So, the funds aren’t there to build new or make substantial improvements, he said.

“At this point we have no plan to even help us navigate what the next number of years look like.”

Recommendations could come as early as next spring, he said, noting the service also rents space for a training facility at Lambton Mall.

Not everything needs to be under one roof, he said.

“The overall thing would be to develop a plan, a long-term plan for the facilities,” he said.

In the meantime, renovations addressing health and safety concerns have continued, including $100,000 for a new firing range rubber backstop, and $200,000 deferred from 2020 for front desk improvements and replacing some mechanical infrastructure.

Sarnia MayorMike Bradley stepped down from the police board last month, before its May 25 meeting, citing concerns about spending and about the impact the board’s code of conduct was having on his ability to express his opinion.

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