Roanoke City Council on Sept. 26 approved a site plan request from McAdams for a new police and municipal court building to be constructed at the southwest corner of Fairway Drive and Park Drive.
The background
In January, council approved a contract for Construction Manager at Risk with Sedalco Construction Services to build the city’s new police and courts building, which will contain 58,400 square feet, according to a previous Community Impact story.
“We hope to break ground this winter,” said Diane Rice, communications and public engagement officer for the city, in an email Sept. 27. No firm date has been set though, but she said city officials will provide an update when more information becomes available.
Police Chief Jeriahme Miller said the building will take 18 months to construct.
The details
The new building will be home for the police department and courts, and feature a shooting range for training, with the total cost including the shooting range projected at $37.4 million. The new building will be three times larger than the current building. It will include additional storage, a larger dispatch center, more meeting and conference rooms, a larger training area, and a better separation of courts and police, according to city documents.
A sales tax helped fuel the purchase for the new building was aided by the passage of two propositions in May 2022 that established a Crime Control Prevention District, which is funded by a 0.5% sales tax.
Also of note
At the Sept. 26 meeting, council approved an interlocal agreement with Denton County for the Roanoke Public Library.
In this interlocal agreement, the Roanoke Public Library agrees to provide reading programs for children, literacy materials for adults, job and career training for all ages, outreach services, and educational programs in exchange for funds calculated by the Denton County Library Advisory Board, with service population size as its primary factor, according to a council agenda memo. The agreement includes a $19,000 payment from Denton County to the city of Roanoke, and in return, the library will continue to offer free library cards to all Denton County residents, Rice said.
