Chubbuck Police months away from long-awaited upgrade
Published at | Updated at
CHUBBUCK — In many ways, its new remodel will move the Chubbuck police station out of the 20th century.
For almost two decades, additions have been made onto the aging building as growth has deemed necessary. With each addition, standalone electrical, plumbing, water, data and HVAC infrastructure have been installed, creating issues both in functionality and efficiency.
“We are (excited). We are,” Police Chief Bill Guiberson said. “This had been going on so long. When the city started looking a facility needs, the police department was recognized as having the greatest need. We were working out of the smallest space, the oldest space. We were just cramped.”
So cramped, the chief said, that on more than one occasion he told the Chubbuck City Council that additional manpower was just not feasible.
“Yeah, manpower would be nice,” he said. “But where do they work out of?”
There have also been times that needed training has been delayed or put off altogether, due to the lack of conference space, he said.
Then there is the issue with the existing fitness area.
Fitness in important for officers, who must remain in exceptional physical condition in order to properly carry out the duties, Guiberson said.
But the workout room in the current station is run down, dingy and filled primarily with hand-me-down equipment. The current fitness area is used by “maybe one or two people,” Guiberson said, with much of the department choosing to buy a gym membership for after-hours workouts instead.
“One of the biggest things with the remodel was, (the officers) said, ‘You know, we want somewhere where we can just come in and work out,'” Guiberson said. “One of my biggest goals is to make this a place that our employees are proud of. … That’s been a big priority with this remodel.”
The remodel began with a “wall-breaking” in August. The entire process of renovating the old city hall, then the existing station, is expected to take about a year.
That process has been broken up into two stages. Stage one, currently underway, will see the previous city hall remodeled into a control room, patrol room, dispatch center, fitness area and other wings of the new station. Once that’s completed, officers will move into that side of the building while the existing department is renovated and remodeled into office space, evidence storage and similar facilities.
Due to delays in product delivery, manpower shortage and southeast Idaho winter weather, though, the new total completion date has been moved back a couple months.
“I think that’s just the times that we’re in now, and the challenges we face as a community,” Guiberson said of the delays. “We’re still looking at total completion sometime in October.”
Delays, however, have not dampened the excitement from Guiberson and his department.
Once completed, the new station will not only provide officers with a useable fitness area and training room big enough for an entire shift, it will provide for actual locker rooms and a dedicated evidence storage facility.
It will also allow the department room to grow — something the city of Chubbuck has targeted in the coming years.
This remodel is a need the city identified years ago. It has been in the works for so long in fact, that a display of carpet samples selected for the station on display in the chief’s office is labeled with a date in 2019.
Now, it is just about patience for the final few months.
“It’s been a challenge. It’ll be worth it in the end, though,” Guiberson said.
As Guiberson said, officers who poked their heads into the under-development side of the building come back giddy with excitement. And they are just two months or so from moving into the new digs.
Guiberson joked that people looking for the current animal control center would almost need a map to get there from the city building — despite it being on the same property. A kind of go-past-the-snowplow-and-make-a-left-at-the-sanitation-truck-sort-of thing, he said with a laugh. But the remodel also includes a new animal-control facility as well secured parking for employees.
“Each little step along the way, our folks are walking over there and just walking through the area, and seeing the progress,” he said. “Each step is exciting to see.”
