Novi puts $120 million bond on Aug. 5 ballot for public safety facilities

NOVI — The city of Novi is seeking a $120 million bond on the Aug. 5 ballot to update, replace and relocate four of the city’s five public safety buildings, which are more than 40 years old and which city officials say no longer meet the Police Department’s and Fire Department’s needs.

The 1 mill bond, which City Council unanimously approved March 10 to appear on the August ballot, would relocate the Police Department along with Fire Station #1 to a more centralized 78,500-square-foot new facility to be built on Lee BeGole Drive near the current police gun range. The city will also build a road to service the building. This part of the project is estimated to cost $91.85 million.

The new Fire Station # 2 and Fire Station # 3 would be 14,500-square-foot facilities to be located in north Novi and southeast Novi for an estimated cost of $13.15 million and $13 million, respectively.

Fire Station #4 would remain at its current location but receive some on-site improvements that are anticipated to cost $2 million.

The bond has been in discussion for at least four years, according to Sheryl Walsh-Molloy, director of communications for the city of Novi. She said the current buildings are outdated and do not offer adequate space for a co-ed workforce, technological advancements and the number of organizations that are housed in the police administration building.

The Novi Police Department building alone houses offices for not only 73 police officers, but 25 civilian employees, roughly 10 people on a federal task force, approximately 10 Michigan State Police officers, 75 Community Emergency Response Team volunteers, and 30 Volunteers In Public Safety.

However, Walsh-Molloy said that although the discussion of a bond to build a new police station and three new fire stations has been in existence for many years now, the timing for the city is better now. In 2012, she said, the city was coming off of a failed signature park recreation bond, and then right after that the city went after the library bond, which built the new library. She said that after the library bond is completed this year, the city will be debt-free in 2026.

“So, while the need has been there, it’s timing, and we have no debt,” Walsh-Molloy said. “So, the library bond is paid off in 2026, and so you think about this: Novi will have zero debt. You can talk to any of the other cities around. It is virtually unheard of in local government for cities not to have debt.”

She said that she had people ask why, when there are residential houses that are older than the police and fire stations, do they need new buildings. She said that if a house was built for a family of four or five and is 25 years old, it will not accommodate a family of 12 living there.

“You couldn’t have predicted (in 1980) the partnerships that we have now that work out of our building — the federal partnerships and the State Police,” Public Safety Director and Police Chief Erick Zinser said. “In 1980, that was unheard of to have those kinds of partners embedded in your facilities, and that’s what we have now.”

Lack of space has been a constant problem for the Novi Police and Fire departments, according to Zinser.

Zinser said that there has always been a need for more space, since he started with the Police Department in 1998. However, he said it has become more of a problem now as there is nothing else they can do to create space for things that current times demand.

He said the buildings were built between 1978 and 1981. At that time, there were few female police officers. Today, out of the 73 Novi police officers, 19 are women.

Zinser said that since approximately 2012, officials have conducted multiple assessments on the police administration building along with Fire Stations 1, 2 and 3. He said there have been several different renditions of plans for ways to make more space out of the buildings they currently have, and update them to meet technology and spatial needs of modern times.

“We just keep coming back to ‘there is no more space,’ especially in the Police Department. There is no more space.” Zinser said. “We cannot move walls anymore, move offices, or try to run new conduit for technology. It’s just we’ve maximized all the space that we can.”

He said the department converted a single-use bathroom into a multi-use locker room.

Zinser said one of the issues is the need for privacy. He said that when someone comes to the Police Department to file a crime report, there is nowhere to meet with the person in private without entering a secured area.

“It may be a simple traffic report or a simple crime report, but it affects people differently and they don’t want to be standing in the lobby talking openly about it. You don’t know who is going to come in,” Zinser said.

Another issue is that there is not enough space for shift leaders to have an office, so if they need to talk to one of the other officers, it is hard to do that privately without other officers hearing the discussion.

There is not enough space for everyone to have a locker. He said they have things piled up along the walls in various rooms.

“We don’t even have a closet in that building to put things in. All of our closets are stuffed to the brim,” Zinser said. “We don’t even have a conference room anymore.”

Three of the city’s four fire stations were designed around 1978 for firetrucks that were smaller than firetrucks today.

“Rewind to the 1970s when the fire stations were being designed — imagine the size of a firetruck back then versus the capabilities of a fire engine today in sheer magnitude of size,” Walsh-Molloy said. “So, much like what Chief (Zinser) is saying about the police side, fire stations were built over 45 years ago with very similar constraints.”

Fire Stations #1, #2 and #3 do not have separate facilities such as showers and bathrooms for female firefighters. If men and women are on a shift together, they have to “figure out a way to share the facilities.”

The facilities don’t offer a decontamination zone for firefighters. A decontamination zone is an area near the garage where firefighters go directly after a fire to take off clothing and equipment that has been exposed to carcinogens, shower and put on fresh clothes. Because they don’t have this zone, the firefighters have to expose the entire building to these carcinogens before they can wash and change.

Firestation #4 was built in 2003, so it does not need to be replaced, but at over 20 years old is in need of some “enhancments” to modernize it as well.

“If you’ve every been to a fresh fire scene, it’s pretty nasty to breathe all that stuff in, and all that stuff is embedded into their bunker gear, their boots, and there is nowhere to decontaminate and go into what we call the cold zone,” Zinser said.

If passed, the bond will cost residents approximately $125 to $375 annually depending on the size of their home. The median home value in the city is $400,000, and those homeowners can expect to pay $200 more per year, officials said.

Walsh-Molloy said it is important to note that 29.3 cents of every tax dollar, or less than 30% of residential property taxes, go to support city services such as roads, police and fire. She said that just over 70% goes toward the schools, the county, the zoo, community colleges,  museums and more.

In order to talk to voters about replacing the police administration building and three of the fire stations, along with upgrades at the fourth fire station, Zinser and Walsh-Molloy are willing to come to any homeowners association meetings. They are also holding five informational meetings at the various public safety buildings for the community.

The meetings are scheduled to be held:

• May 8 at 6:30 p.m. at Fire Station #1, 42975 Grand River Ave.

• June 10 at 7 p.m. at the Novi Police Training Center, 45125 W. 10 Mile Road.

• June 14 at 9 a.m. at Fire Station #2, 1919 Paramount St.

• June 16 at 6:30 p.m. at Fire Station #4, 49375 W. 10 Mile Road.

• July 24 at 7:30 p.m. at Fire Station #3, 42785 Nine Mile Road.

“Come to the Police Department, come to the Fire Department and you will no longer question why we are doing this,” Zinser said.

For more information or to schedule Walsh-Molloy and Zinser to come to a homeowners association meeting, visit cityofnovi.org or call the city’s community relations department at (248) 735-5628.