The Oviedo Police Department has no facilities to house their K-9s during their shifts.
The dogs stay in the officers’ cars all day long when they’re on duty, with no dedicated place to get exercise.
“We currently have no K-9 facilities. They stay in the cars,” City Manager Bryan Cobb said at last week’s public forum on the proposed $47 million police department building that voters will decide to fund or not in the November election.
He said the new building would give the K-9s about 600 square feet of space for exercise, training and resting when they are not out with an officer.
“The officers do bring them in occasionally. For the most part, they stay in the car so they can have air conditioning. They can’t get stretched.”
Around eight residents attended the forum and about 180 people watched it online.
If voters approve the city borrowing $47 million for the building, they will be billed annually for the life of the loan, which is 30 years. The cost would be about $78 annually for every $100,000 of taxable value (not what the property would sell for). The rate will decrease with rising property values and future refinancing, the city’s finance director said in July.
Residents can see how to calculate and find out their potential tax increase if the referendum is passed at the bottom of this website.
Oviedo resident David Cook said he and his neighbors are in “sticker shock” at the budget for this project.
“The shocking thing is the [estimated $47 million],” Cook said. “It’s a staggering number… we just don’t share the same vision you do; we’re just not educated enough to know what’s going on.”
Deputy Mayor Jeff Boddiford said the price will only get higher the longer the city waits to do this.
“I don’t know when the right time is going to be. We could wait another 10 years, but who’s to say it’s not going to be more than this [$47 million],” Boddiford said.
Residents who attended the forum said they are worried about the way the funds could be used and the financial impact this will have on them.
One resident said she is concerned over the fate of the current public safety building.
Boddiford explained that it would be more cost-effective to demolish the current building for an estimated $150,000, which is included in the $47 million budget, rather than ask residents for the additional $12.8 million staff estimated it could cost to renovate it into an office building.
“We understand we’re asking a big ask to start off with this [$47 million],” Boddiford said.
Mayor Megan Sladek said she is hesitant about demolishing the public safety building.
“I think a poorly maintained community building is better than no building at all,” she said. “I know that it’s included [demolition] in the budget, but my hope still is that we will not waste a building that is usable.”
Oviedo voters approved borrowing $11.4 million for a 20,000-square-foot police building in 2016 but a needs study, done right after that vote, found that building size would be inadequate and the bonds were never issued. The study used Oviedo’s projected 2038 population of 50,000 residents to estimate 42,000 square feet of total space is needed for the project.
Currently, Oviedo has an estimated population of 40,000 people.
Police Chief Dale Coleman said that since the 2017 study, the police department gained 5,000 square feet of rolling asset storage space when the fire department moved out of the public safety building in 2016, into the fire administration office, making the total square footage of the project around 47,000 square feet.
Another resident asked if there was a way to get funding or grants from the state or county.
Sladek said that city officials looked into possible ways the city could receive money to help with the construction of the project. She said because many cities in the state need new police stations, there isn’t state funding to help.
“One thing congressmen mentioned is that there may be technology funding available, but for the bricks and sticks, that is going to all fall on us,” Sladek said.
Tour of the Station
After the public forum, Deputy Chief Michael Beavers led a tour of the public safety building so that attendees could see for themselves the condition inside the building.
Inside, the doorways to restrooms, especially the womens’ restrooms, are visibly more narrow than the Americans with Disabilities Act standard of 32 inches. The hallways throughout the building are not accessible to many of the rooms located inside, giving it a maze-like configuration. Beavers said in order to get to some rooms and offices, you have to walk through other rooms first. He said the building’s space is dysfunctional and not compliant with the ADA.
On the tour, Beavers was asked why the current building can’t be reconfigured to make it easier to get through. Beavers said some of the walls are made of concrete, which would make it too difficult and expensive to renovate.
Since the office spaces are unable to be reconfigured easily, Beavers said the lack of storage has taken a toll. He said the department struggled to adequately store evidence. Boxes were spread throughout the offices, overflowing with documents.
Lockers, such as the ones commonly seen in high schools, are used as additional space to store evidence overnight before it is logged into the system in the morning.
Beavers led the tour upstairs to see the room that is being used for police training. The room, which was the sleeping quarters for the fire department before they moved out from the public safety building, only has enough space for two computer desks. Beavers said as technology is advancing, police training is relying more on virtual reality to train officers and the room can’t accommodate it.
He took the attendees into the break room where officers should be able to set up cots for sleeping between extended shifts during emergencies, such as a hurricane, but Beavers said there’s no room for this. The kitchen is currently missing appliances, leaving the officers with just a microwave and fridge to use during long shifts for meals. The room is also being used to store extra furniture and a broken treadmill.
The Oviedo Police Station is still offering tours, and Boddiford implored residents to see it to help them decide how to vote before the election on Nov. 7. Schedule a tour here.
“We’re going to do everything we can to try to educate. I can’t stress enough to people to go take a tour of that building. We deserve to give the police department what they need to do their jobs,” Boddiford said. “They have been in that building for 30 years and it is not in good shape.”
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