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Police station renos won't happen before 2019

Balmoral Street headquarters bursting at the seams, needs additional space, say police officials.
Thunder Bay Police Station
Thunder Bay Police headquarters in 2017 (Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com).

THUNDER BAY – More than two years after going public with a need for extensive renovations to their Balmoral Street headquarters, Thunder Bay police are still awaiting the go-ahead to start the process.

It won’t come anytime soon, they were told on Tuesday morning.

It will likely be 2019 before the multi-million dollar project can begin, as city council juggles expenditures, prioritizing what needs to get done first.

Chief J.P. Levesque said he’s applied for capital funding from the City of Thunder Bay for the past five years, only to be told no each time.

“It’s been flagged every year. Basically it came down, two years ago, with the need for a new radio system. The capital money was going to have to be spent on either the radio system or on the building,” Levesque said.

“The priority, was of course, was for public safety and officer safety that the radio system, which was at end-of-life needed to be changed. Something had to give.”

The Thunder Bay Police Services Board on Tuesday during their monthly public meeting heard the building, constructed as a one-storey structure in 1987 and added to about five years later to make it a two-storey facility, is in decrepit condition.

It’s not falling apart, but there are definitely deficiencies, Levesque said.

“One of our cell toilets was leaking into a sergeant’s office. The building is shifting, so we’re having issues with cracking and things of that nature,” the chief said. “And we’re just plain out of room. We’re out of office space. We’re out of storage space for exhibits and things of that nature.”

Levesque said there is a plan in place to complete the renovations, which published estimates in 2015 pegged at about $3 million.

“We have a design, we know what it will look like, we just need the funding to get it done,” he said.

The urgency was questioned by at least one board member, Coun. Joe Virdiramo.

“The building is only 30 years old,” the Westfort representative said. “That’s not old for a building.”

TBPS executive officer Chris Adams said the wear-and-tear of being a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week facility has taken its toll over three decades.

“The operational reality has changed. The way we do business, especially the way we deal with the public, has changed,” Adams said.

“The building functions, but we have reached a point where we have to do something.”

Adams pointed to the small size of the front lobby and the building’s 20 jail cells that are in constant need of repair with the amount of traffic day in and day out.



Leith Dunick

About the Author: Leith Dunick

A proud Nova Scotian who has called Thunder Bay home since 2002, Leith is Dougall Media's director of news, but still likes to tell your stories too. Wants his Expos back and to see Neil Young at least one more time. Twitter: @LeithDunick
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