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| Patterson gets new police station |
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| Written by John Saiz | Patterson Irrigator | |
| Friday, 20 June 2008 | |
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Patterson Police Services will soon move to the old City Hall, 33 S. Del Puerto Ave., following a 5-0 vote Tuesday by the Patterson City Council. The move means Patterson’s police offices will more than double in size, from 1,900 square feet to 4,300 square feet. Deputies are waiting for the building to be renovated before the move, which Patterson police Chief Tyrone Spencer hopes to start in a month’s time. “We outgrew our old building a long time ago,” Spencer said. “There are three detectives sharing one little room.” The city entered a five-year lease with the property’s owner with the option to renew for one or more years. When police vacate the building they occupy now, 344 W. Las Palmas Ave., the city expects to expand the fire department, which shares the building. At Tuesday’s meeting, City Manager Cleve Morris said the building, including utilities, would cost about $66,000 annually. The council authorized spending up to $25,000 on improvements. Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson said the city has needed to replace its police headquarters for close to 10 years. The city has a contract for police services with the sheriff’s department. “There’s no locker rooms, no showers and no secure parking,” Christianson said. He’s had to delay sending more personnel to Patterson, he said, because there just hasn’t been enough room. “We can’t keep asking sheriff’s deputies to work out of inadequate facilities,” he said. The new space will also allow Christianson to start his decentralization program on the West Side. The program is designed to take much of the staff at the sheriff’s central office in Modesto and spread it among regional command centers. Christianson hopes that will provide a greater police presence in Patterson and its surrounding areas. If the sheriff’s department does use the new office as part of its West Side command, it will likely share some of the costs, he said. Several factors made the old City Hall building attractive, Spencer said, including keeping police services in the core of the city. “There’s the security factor with being downtown where there is a lot of retail and business,” he said. It also allows the police department to keep the parking lot it uses now. However, the space is likely a temporary home. The chief expects that as the department continues to grow, it will again need a larger building in another five years or so. “It is something that will bridge the gap,” Spencer said. To reach John Saiz at the Irrigator, call 892-6187 or e-mail him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
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