LINDSBORG, Kan. – One of the primary objectives of the City of Lindsborg’s Strategic Plan is to provide a safe and healthy community with the goal of providing public safety services for all that maintain standards of excellence. Lindsborg’s Public Safety Center located on Lincoln Street was built in 1987, and no modernizing or large-scale improvements have been made to the facility since that time.
In the Spring of 2022, City staff identified a need to improve both the interior and exterior areas of the Public Safety Center buildings. The remodeled Public Safety Center will make the buildings more secure and efficient with the flexibility for future expansion.
Improvements include an enclosed interview room adjacent to the lobby for use by the public when coming to file reports, a soft interview room for handling sensitive cases, additional workspaces for patrol officers, an evidence preparation room with expanded property and evidence storage capabilities, new locker rooms, a training room, new garage bay doors for both police and fire vehicles, the addition of interior water lines in the fire bay for the replenishment of water in fire apparatuses (especially during inclement weather), a de-contamination area designed to clean soiled personal protective equipment and personnel, and modification to the exterior of the EMS building to correct design flaws and prevent flooding and debris from entering into the basement area.
An exterior “facelift” is also planned to modernize the building, and to move the public entrance to First Street (matching the address of the building).
After much deliberation and several iterations of the design & features throughout the last half of 2022 and the first quarter 2023, City staff and Hutton have landed on a finalized design-build plan and budget for the renovation project. The City Council passed the first agreement for the renovation project in March 2023; construction is expected to begin in November 2023 and be completed around February or March of 2024.
The project is being split over two operating budget years to minimize the financial impact; the first half of the interior remodel was approved as part of the 2023 budget and the second half as well as the exterior renovation will be included in the 2024 budget.
“Renovating the Public Safety Center buildings will have many advantages. It will improve our ability to serve this community more effectively through the utilization of modern equipment, methods, and technology while enhancing the professional appearance of our facilities,” said Chief Michael Davis, Director of Public Safety.
