The Buckley police force could use more elbow room and city leaders are willing to provide it – to a certain financial extent.
The city recently accepted bids to expand the space occupied by Chief Jim Arsanto and his force, but an initial bid came in at roughly $1.5 million. A second option brought a bid of about $900,000, according to City Administrator David Schmidt.
Those numbers were much larger than anticipated, so members of the Buckley City Council “want it scaled down even more,” Schmidt said. He noted the hope is to add between 800 and 1,000 square feet of space to the department’s blue building on Cedar Street.
Even with the delay, the hope is to have the expansion project completed this year, Schmidt said.
The goal is to keep costs in the range of $300,000 to $500,000, he said, explaining that the city budget has a Capital Projects Fund that would pay for most of the work. If necessary, he said, the city could dip into the fund established with the sale of the natural gas utility. That pot of money, originally close to $5 million, is paying for the replacement of the city skate park and upcoming improvement to the city parking lot just north of Main Street.
In other items during their March 22 meeting, members of the Buckley City Council:
• received an update on upcoming repairs to the White River bridge between Buckley and Enumclaw. A representative from the state’s Department of Transportation confirmed the scheduled remains as advertised, from 10 p.m. on Friday, April 15, until noon on Saturday, April 23.
• agreed to extend a lease agreement between the city and CrossFit. The company occupies the old fire station and is negotiating to purchase the building. The lease extension provides time for the terms to be ironed out, Schmidt said.
• considered a franchise agreement with Astound Broadband, which intends to run fiber-optic cable to the Buckley branch of the Pierce County library. Council members refrained from approving the agreement, asking for more information about the terms of the deal.
