October 30, 2008
By OLSON GUNNAR
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
Even criminals will have something to be thankful for should they be hauled in to Ankeny’s new police station once it’s finished – windows in all of the outside rooms, including the holding cells.
The many windows are meant to let in as much natural light as possible, one of building’s many efficiencies that officials pointed out during a City Council tour Monday. In the holding cells, the view of the outside will help keep people from feeling claustrophobic, Police Chief Gary Mikulec said.
“It’s built with the safety of even the criminals in mind,” Mikulec said.
“We’re delivering on our promise to do something remarkable for our citizens.”
The roughly $17 million project, at 411 S.W. Ordnance Road in the Prairie Trail development, is still on track to be completed on budget, despite being months behind schedule due primarily to poor weather at the start of construction, Assistant City Manager Jim Spradling said.
It was supposed to be ready in July but is now expected to open in February.
That aside, city leaders will deliver on the promises they made in asking Ankeny voters in 2006 to allow the city to borrow $27 million against future taxes in order to upgrade the police and fire facilities, Mikulec said.
“It’s really starting to come together,” Councilman Tom Strait said.
A complaint of the existing police station at 211 S.W. Walnut St. is that the layout doesn’t do enough to separate officers from the records clerks from visiting residents from criminals. With everyone’s business being conducted so closely together, the building made for issues of efficiency, respect and safety, Mikulec said.
The new station will eliminate these concerns, he said. Residents who are picking up items recovered in a burglary, for example, have a different door to go to than, say, the one to the booking room.
There are other features that will make police work easier. A shooting range in the basement of the station will allow officers to practice many shooting scenarios.
The door into it is large enough to pull in a squad car, so officers can practice with all of the tools they would have at their disposal in a real-life situation.
The basement of the station includes parking for squad cars, which Mikulec said will not only be convenient but save time and money.
The cars can get so hot in the summer that the motherboards of the squad computers warp, destroying the computer, he said. And in the winter, officers won’t have to take the time to scrape ice and snow off the cars.
“It’s designed as a good symbol of Ankeny pride,” he said. “The residents of Ankeny have waited a long time for this.”
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