Miramar to get police headquarters after 9 years
By By Ariel Barkhurst and Sun Sentinel
After a nine year wait, Miramar is finally ready to rebuild its hurricane-destroyed police headquarters.
The city agreed last week to spend $22.9 million for a three-story, 65,000 square foot building to house most of the police department's 270 employees. The building at the Miramar Town Center near City Hall offers room to expand and will replace the strip mall facility the department is now working out of.
There will be 14,000 square feet of stores and restaurants on the ground floor of the new building, with police offices on the second and third floors.
In contrast to the current strip-mall offices, there will be plenty of parking and a waiting area for the public.
It should be ready by the end of next year.
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The police department's temporary quarters lacks a booking and temporary detention facility. That means prisoners are housed in the back of police cars during investigations and arrest paperwork, said Officer Gregory Strickland, who is also a Miramar resident.
"If one of those officers gets hurt because we don't have proper facilities, there's no price for that," he said.
The lack of a temporary detention facility resulted in two escaped prisoners in 9 years, said police spokesperson Tania Rues.
And because officers must call on others to monitor their prisoners while they finish an investigation, it takes more officers off the street, Strickland said.
The lack of a police department building has caused other problems. The department has to evacuate the strip mall during all tropical storm warnings because the facility is not built to withstand storms. The criminal investigations division lacks sufficient office space, interview room space, and rooms for victim advocates to do their work.
The city pays $268,000 a year to lease the facility.
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Hurricane Wilma put a large hole in the old building's roof in 2005. But for years, the city was wrangling with FEMA and insurance companies over how much it would collect, and since 2011, commissioners and residents were divided over where the building should go.
Still, the contract to build almost didn't get approval from the commission. When it came up for a vote last month, there was a deadlocked dispute over how many local and small businesses general contractor Pirtle Construction should use.
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Pirtle offered to make sure 20 percent of its subcontractors were local or small businesses, and that 10 percent of the workers hired on to the project were Miramar residents. That earned votes from Commissioners Alexandra Davis and Yvette Colbourne, breaking the deadlock.
It's a relief to have the contract approved and the building on the way, said Mayor Lori Moseley.
"I am thrilled that, ultimately, the right thing got done," she said.
abarkhurst@tribune.com, 954-356-4451