The Sedalia City Council convened for an short special meeting Monday night which resulted in the hiring of an architect for the new Sedalia Police Department Headquarters building.
Council approved GHN Architects, of Springfield, for the upcoming project. Council heard a presentation in May from GHN regarding options for the police station, either expanding the current building or construct a new one; council approved the latter.
According to information in the meeting packet, the City of Sedalia received 12 proposals for the advertised project by the deadline. The project team, comprised of City Administrator Gary Edwards, SPD Cmdr. Larry Ward, Finance Director Kelvin Shaw and Community Development Director John Simmons, evaluated and scored the applicants on a variety of criteria and called references.
Ward 3 Councilman Bob Cross asked City Administrator Gary Edwards why GHN was the recommended company instead of other options, asking if money was an issue.
“We can’t talk money at this stage, we’re not allowed to. It’s going off of qualifications,” Edwards replied. “(GHN Architects) have a lot of experience in building police departments and that’s the reason why we looked at them. We analyzed all the submissions and they know Sedalia, they worked with us on some preliminary stuff with the facility they proposed.”
SPD Chief John DeGonia was at the meeting and told the Democrat he and other officers have been talking with GHN about wants and needs for the future building.
“When they came down here before all this they interviewed officers and us what we thought we needed for space, what their suggestions were, different items they wanted to see — a training room, how big it should be, how much officer work station space we needed,” he told the Democrat after the meeting. “They gave us suggestions and lined out something in our budget that we could be happy and both meet the budget.”
DeGonia noted, as he has before, that a new building is needed because SPD has simply outgrown its current station at the Municipal Building at 200 S. Osage Ave.
“We’re very excited. This was built back in the ’70s, the building’s in good shape but we’ve just outgrown it with adding on some personnel and computer equipment, storage spaces and everything like that. We’ve just really outgrown our space,” he said. “It’s also a recruiting tool for us. We’re getting a new building, making a good wage now, we’ve got great equipment so this will really be the last piece of the puzzle. People will come here and say they want to work here. It will help with recruiting and retaining officers.”
Council also approved an ordinance approving a Workplace/Health Fair Immunization Agreement with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., a Delaware Corporation, for a flu clinic for city staff.
Council also approved a resolution amending the Municipal Court Fine and Bond Chart relating to Senate Bill 572.
