The ribbon was cut today on a new South Patrol police station at South 21st and Metropolitan Avenue that is built on top of a former Superfund site that has been remediated.
The new building, budgeted for $2.25 million, has about 6,030 square feet, according to Unified Government officials. The building received a $400,000 grant from the state of Kansas, and tax-increment financing was used.
The property was vacant for a number of years previously, having served at one time as a silver smelting operation. It was cleaned up and reclaimed to be used again for development.
“This is another example of Kansas City, Kansas, moving forward, reinvesting in the infrastructure of our community, and reinvesting in the infrastructure of our public safety,” Mayor Mark Holland said.
He added that 95 percent of police work is not done within the police station, but out on the streets. He asked for a moment of silence in memory of two Kansas City, Kansas, police officers who were killed last year in the line of duty.
The building is expected to provide a new feeling of safety to the Argentine area’s stores, businesses and residents. Just west of the police station is the Walmart Neighborhood Market, with a Save-a-Lot grocery store to the east. The former police station, a smaller building originally designed to be a house, was on South 34th Street. The new station is also close to 18th Street Expressway and U.S. 69.
The new building is technologically up-to-date for the Police Department’s future use of car and body cameras, according to officials.
Residents of the Argentine area have worked about five years to get the project to completion, according to officials.
Third District Commissioner Ann Brandau Murguia, who did a lot of work for the new police station, thanked those involved in the project, and presented plaques to Mario Escobar, former executive director of the Argentine Betterment Corp., Pat Dunn of the Southwest Argentine Neighborhood Group; and also presented a barbecue grill from charitable donations to Police Chief Terry Zeigler.
Zeigler said he appreciated the work that everyone had done toward making the project a reality.
He said the new station has an open-floor concept, open rafters, a break room, locker room, and a community room with glass walls.
“Little things make a big difference for police officers, and we’re just so glad those things were incorporated in the design,” he said.
There is hope that community members will have meetings at the new police station, and interact with officers, he said.
“We truly do have a community policing philosophy, and that went into this design-build,” Zeigler said.
The report desk should be staffed in a few months, for community members to walk in and make reports as they currently do at the Indian Springs Midtown police station, he said.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony was held outdoors in a heat advisory, with a heat index of over 100 degrees, which may have shortened some speeches. The Frost Loya Band provided musical entertainment.
A representative of the Walmart Neighborhood Market presented a grant for $2,500 to the police station.
Crossland Construction was the contractor and Hoefer Wysocki was the architect for the project, with Davidson Architecture and Engineering.
