Council hires architect for new police station

ON THE MOVE — The Decatur Police Department will be getting a new home soon. The council approved a contract with an architect for the project at Monday’s meeting. ARCHIVES

A new police station for Decatur took one more step forward Monday with the approval of an architect for the project.

The Decatur City Council unanimously approved a contract with Brinkley Sargent Wiginton Architects of Dallas, pending attorney review of insurance items in the contract.

Police Chief Delvon Campbell said he’s known the firm for a long time and is impressed with their work with building police departments and public safety buildings.

“They have quite an extensive knowledge in that field,” Campbell said. “… We looked at a few other architects along the way, but I kept coming back to them for the working experience I’ve had with them through the Police Chiefs Association and the work they do.”

City Manager Brett Shannon agreed with Campbell’s assessment.

“It’s a very reputable firm, well known in the industry,” Shannon said. “There are several that would do a fabulous job, and this is certainly one of them.”

Shannon told the council that the city closed on the property purchased to house the new police station. That 7.89 acre-property is located near the Wise County Heritage Museum off Charles Street, near the current police department location.

“We didn’t want to engage an architect before we had the place to build it, so that hurdle’s been cleared,” he said.

Campbell said one of the next steps will be to seek a construction manager at risk to oversee the project.

The city has allotted $18,265,000 for the police department building as part of the $34 million capital improvements program approved by the council last year.