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ST. CLAIR SHORES — The former St. Lucy School will temporarily house the administrative offices for the St. Clair Shores police and fire departments during planned construction at their respective facilities.
In March, the St. Clair Shores City Council voted 6-0 to authorize City Manager Dustin Lent to sign a letter of understanding. The letter will go to the Archdiocese of Detroit for final approval and a contract will be presented before the council at a different meeting.
Councilwoman Linda Bertges was not yet present at the meeting on March 19.
When city officials looked to place trailers on-site at the departments, Lent said there would not be enough room for all the needed vehicles and that it was a more expensive option than moving to St. Lucy’s. The original cost was around $650,000 for the trailers.
“One of the main reason(s) that cost was skyrocketing was because that site is very limited in space,” Lent said. “And when you are trying to do construction work of demoing the current police department, plus also utilizing all the parking for all the cops’ cars still being there, it left very little room for a lot of the construction vehicles.”
He went on to say that because of the limited space, the construction company would have to relocate their supplies somewhere within the city. In the end, he said moving the administrative employees of both departments would save more money.
Fire Chief James Piper said in an interview that the administrative offices for the St. Clair Shores police and fire departments are moving because of the demolition and the reconstruction of the police department and the central fire station. Active firefighters will be split between the two other stations while construction is ongoing.
“Right now the plan is for the firefighters, the daily operations firefighters, are going to split between Station 2 and Station 3,” Piper said.
He said there is not enough space on the site for temporary trailers or to keep half of the station open.
“A lot of it is just going to come down to cost/benefit,” Piper said. “If we can afford to do it well and easily and also do a little bit of upgrade to Station 2 and 3 at the same time, that’ll happen. If it’s actually cheaper and more cost effective we might do something like trailers somewhere in the center part of town but we’re still working on that and that hasn’t been decided yet.”
St. Lucy’s has space to rent out in their building and it is just a small wing in the building. Other space is rented out to other entities.
Piper said residents could still call 911 as that is handled by the South East Regional Emergency Services Authority in Roseville. The only difference is if people would need to visit the administrative offices in person.
“Instead of coming here to Harper and Sunnydale, we’re going to be down there on the south end of St. Lucy’s for about a year,” Piper said.
Councilwoman and Mayor Pro Tem Candice Rusie pointed out at the meeting a bolded part within the documents they were given and asked for clarification. This section stated that police cannot house any prisoners on-site. Lent explained that the parish was OK with processing and temporarily holding the prisoners, but not housing them for extended periods of time.
Police Chief Jason Allen said they house prisoners at the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office and that they’ve been doing that for a little over a year.
Housing prisoners at the county jail, Allen said, saves the St. Clair Shores Police Department money on meals, blankets and other things.
“It works out well for us; they’re not in our building,” Allen said. “The liability in my opinion is greatly reduced. It costs a little bit extra in gas, driving them out to the county.”
He said they complete tasks such as fingerprinting, breathalyzer tests and other basics in St. Clair Shores but that they do not house the prisoners.
“That’s what we’ll do at the church as well,” Allen said. “We’ll have a temporary processing room built and then they’ll come in through a side door, get processed. They’re there 20, 30 minutes and then right out to the county.”
Piper estimates the move will happen by July or August.
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