Shelby Township

Ground broken on long-awaited police building

By Kristyne E. Demske
C & G Staff Writer

» Click on image to view full size « Photo by Deb Jacques Shelby Township officials put their shovels into the dirt to welcome the start of construction on a new police building March 2. Photo by Deb Jacques Shelby Township officials put their shovels into the dirt to welcome the start of construction on a new police building March 2.

It was a moment years in the making as township officials put shovels into the ground for a new police headquarters.

But as one of the department captains pointed out during the March 2 ceremony, a key man who worked hard to get the building erected was missing from the festivities — Police Chief Robert Leman, who is on medical leave.

Speaking in front of the dozens gathered to see the first shovels of dirt dug on the building, Capt. Roland Woelkers said the event was “really about two police chiefs” — Shelby Township’s first chief, Robert Smith, who began the department in a “shack” near the Department of Public Works building and Leman, the current chief who has worked toward getting the department into a more modern facility — and literally out of the township’s basement — ever since he began as chief in 2001.

“This is part of building a safe community,” Woelkers said.

Leman could not attend the March 2 groundbreaking ceremony for the building, which will be built south of Hope Chapel on the township grounds, because he was out on medical leave as of March 1.

“He’s feeling better and he’s home,” said Woelkers, the acting chief in Leman’s absence, at the groundbreaking. He said he could not elaborate on why the chief was out and said he didn’t know when Leman would return, just that “he’s doing well.”

“I’m just glad we’re finally at this point now where we’ll finally see a building going up,” said Supervisor Richard Stathakis. “This has been a long time in the making.”

He pointed out that a new building for the Police Department had been in the Board of Trustees’ top-10 priorities list for two years, and said that the building was important infrastructure for the township.

He, like other speakers at the event, also called attention to Leman’s absence.

“He’s in our prayers,” Stathakis said. “He’ll be back very soon.”

Macomb County Commissioner James Carabelli congratulated Leman for getting the building under way.

“When this process started on this building, I had dark hair,” quipped a now-silver-haired Carabelli, a former trustee of the township who served when a much larger, more expensive justice center to house the police and 41-A District Court had been planned.

The new 17,500-square-foot police building is set to be completed by January 2012, township engineers said, and those who have had to work in strained conditions now say they can’t wait.

“It’s going to improve our work 100 percent because we’ll actually have a facility we can work in,” said Lt. Stan Muszynski, who said he won’t miss the leaking roof of the detective bureau, which is currently in a trailer in the police parking lot.

Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel joined other officials from across the area, including police chiefs from Eastpointe, Clinton Township and Utica, in celebrating the event. Hackel said that the new building will be a tribute to the community.

“This building stands for … the support and services that the men and women inside of it provide to the citizens,” he said.

Police cars, staff to have fenced lot

The night before the groundbreaking, a motion to eliminate a planned fence around the parking lot for police cruisers and staff vehicles died for lack of support.

The fence — a 6-foot decorative aluminum fence on the north side of the lot and a 6-foot black cyclone one on the east and south sides of the lot — will cost about $40,600 and was already included in the $4 million budget for the building.

Stephen Lodge, a senior associate with French Associates, told the Board of Trustees March 1 that the fence was planned for security, visual screening of the vehicles and to help separate different uses of the township municipal grounds.

“It’s a unanimous support from the staff … that the fence is needed,” Woelkers said. “It’s a barrier — if somebody’s trying to get into there they have to climb that fence. It’s an officer safety issue.”

But Trustees Michael Flynn and Doug Wozniak and Treasurer Paul Viar did not agree that the fence was a necessary expense.

“I think aesthetics are kind of important in this instance,” Wozniak said. “This is the center of our municipal campus. At the current time, I think we have adequate security. I think we’re being a little redundant with regard to security and, lastly, because of the aesthetics.”

“Where does it end?” asked Flynn. “Shelby Township is not a military base. This is in the middle of our park. I believe it is a waste of money — $40,000 is not an insignificant number.”

Trustees Paula Filar and Lisa Manzella voted against the motion to remove the fence, as did Stathakis. Clerk Terri Kowal was absent and tie votes cannot pass a motion, meaning the fence will remain in the plans.
 

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Kristyne E. Demske at kdemske@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1041.