By William Moore
Daily Journal
STARKVILLE – For the next 10 months, the Starkville Police Department’s operations will be scattered around seven different locations.
But by the summer of 2017, the police department hopes to have something it has never had before, a building to call its own.
“We have been sharing space in city hall since 1968,” said Police Chief Frank Nichols. “Before that, the department operated out of a call box on a pole on Main Street.”
When the city administration moved to the new city hall two blocks away, it left the old building for the police to expand into.
“We’re going to be able to go from around 9,000-square-feet of space to about 29,000,” Nichols said. “It will be nice to have everyone under one roof.”
The building at 101 Lumpkin St. was built about 1940 as an armory for a field artillery battalion. The original gymnatorium was converted into two stories of offices, but the wooden stage on the north end remains, complete with the original shuffleboard court.
“We are keeping the stage as original as possible,” Nichols said. “It will become our briefing room. The ceiling will be the full two stories. It will be the centerpiece of the building.”
Since it is in a historic district, the outside of the building will retain its Art Moderne style.
“We won’t do anything to the exterior of the building, except for making repairs and repainting,” Nichols said. “We will knock down all of the inside walls and start over with new wiring and plumbing.”
While the new wiring will provide for the technology of today, the craftsmanship of 75 years ago will be retained where available. They will be able to salvage some of the old character of the building, like the original hardwood floors in the front wings and in the stage.
“At some point, hardwood floors went out of favor and they carpeted over them,” Nichols said. “All we have to do is remove the carpet and resurface the wood and we will have a beautiful floor.”
The new police department will include a sally port to safely transfer prisoners in and out of the building. It also will have a large community room that will allow civic groups to host meetings.
The department started moving out of the building June 27, and they will be completely moved out by the first week of July.
“It will be hard to be scattered all over the city, but I tell the guys to just keep focused on the goal,” Nichols said.
When city leaders were denied state funding for the renovations, the Starkville Board of Aldermen approved a 1-mill tax hike to generate around $2.4 million for the project’s overall $5.4 million budget.
The initial round of bids all came in overbudget in late June. If the project has to be rebid, it will delay the project about 6 weeks, delaying completion to next June.
The renovation will be completed by next summer. In December 2017, Nichols will get a chance to show off his department to more than 200 police chiefs across the state when the state chiefs association holds its winter meeting in Starkville for the very first time.
william.moore@journalinc.com