The first estimate from design firm Kaestle Boos Associates for Burlington’s new police station comes out to roughly $46,222,800, an estimate that’s remarkably close to Ways and Means’ preliminary estimate of $45 million.
The estimate includes the costs of demolishing the current police station, building the new one, installing all new systems and furniture, and putting up the police department during two years of construction – in the words of Kaestle Boos associate Kevin Witzell, “If you took the building, flipped it upside down and shook it, all the stuff that might fall out.”
The costs came from an estimator firm Kaestle Boos uses regularly, and includes the escalated prices they expect to see when the project goes to bid around April of next year.
As for what will happen to the police department during construction, Town Administrator Paul Sagarino says he’s looking at multiple options, from using some empty office space in town to building a “trailer farm” as a temporary headquarters.
Early conceptual designs for the police station show a white-facaded building that would blend with the municipal campus on one side and Grand View Farm on the other, though the sketches will change based on the desires of the community. Ways and Means Committee is recommending that Burlington pass a debt exclusion to finance the project while maintaining a cushion in the town’s coffers.
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