Saturday, October 27, 2007

Bosque Farms Police say they need more storage space

Clara Garcia News-Bulletin Staff Writer; cgarcia@news-bulletin.com

Bosque Farms In an effort to ease the inadequate amount of storage space in the new Bosque Farms police and fire station, the village council agreed last week to spend nearly $5,000 on a much-needed metal building.

Bosque Farms Police Chief Joe Stidham requested the funding, saying that the police department's storage needs in the new facility have already exceeded its capacity and officers are now using space provided by the fire department.

"I'm saddened to even have to ask for this new building, but unfortunately, the new building doesn't have adequate storage," Stidham said. "Prior to the new building, we were able to use a portion of the maintenance building. I think it was the intention of the planning council and the architect of the new building that the loft was going to be something different than it is."

Stidham explained that the loft, which is positioned above the fire station, was designated for storage for both the fire and police department. The chief said the loft is "extremely dangerous" and unsafe to walk across.

"It's easy for people to impale themselves on the four to five inch screws that are sticking through the top of that floor, and there's only a certain portion down the middle that you can stand up in," Stidham explained to the council. "We have a certain amount of things stored up there, but it's extremely limited ... and it's shared with the fire department."

Another form of storage in the building is a shared space in the training room that the fire department has allowed the police department to fully utilize. Stidham said the space, which is about five by seven feet, is used to store citations. The police department also uses another small storage space, a three-by-four-foot closet, located in the chief's office.

"What we have been forced to use as our main means of storage is the evidence room," he said. "I have several concerns with that. We're filling up the evidence room very quickly, and we're about to enter into an accreditation process for our department."

To date, there are about five or six departments in the state that have received their accreditation, and Stidham said he hopes that the department will be within the first 10 or15.

"Part of that accreditation process is that your evidence has to be separate from storage," he said. "Having said that, the evidence room is full of stored items that include citations, field kits for narcotics, surplus and backup radios, various propaganda we use for various functions and training equipment."

To add to the storage problems, the department's four-wheeler, which has been stored in the fire department, will soon need to find a new home. The village is currently working on purchasing a new Emergency Medical Service vehicle that is slated to be stored in the fire department, leaving little to no room for the four-wheeler.

Stidham said that a larger metal building, a 12-by-20-foot structure, would serve the department's current as well as future needs.

"This storage unit that we're asking for is rather large, but it will accommodate the needs we have for our storage," Stidham said. "In the past, we have been frugal with our yearly budget and have been able to move funds around when needed. We felt we had no other choice but to ask the council for additional funds."

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