Finally 'turning dirt': Timnath breaks ground on new police station
The town of Timnath will soon have its own police station.
Town officials broke ground on the new facility Wednesday, located east of Timnath's Town Hall. Years in the making, the facility will allow Timnath’s police department to grow in step with the community and provide the 24/7 coverage residents have said is a high priority for them.
Currently, Timnath doesn't have enough officers to provide that coverage without help, so the Larimer County Sheriff's Office assists when Timnath officers aren't on duty.
"It's exciting to now actually take the next step as a town and actually have a police station to house our great police department," said Timnath Mayor Mark Soukup, who then led the crowd at Wednesday's groundbreaking in applauding the Timnath police officers in attendance.
The article continues after the gallery.
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The department employs 13 sworn police officers, and the goal is to have 20 employed by the time the police station opens in December 2022, Timnath Police Chief Terry Jones said in an interview with the Coloradoan. That number will allow the department to operate 24/7, Jones said. Until then, the town will continue to contract some law enforcement services to the sheriff's office.
Timnath residents surveyed in 2018 said public safety was their top priority, and the facility has been in the works since 2019.
"We did this totally in response to the citizens," Soukup said at Wednesday's ceremony while thanking them for their input. "... We wouldn't have done it without that (guidance)."
"We're in the midst of growing the agency," Jones told the crowd at the groundbreaking. "We've got some very dynamic officers that are on right now. We're looking forward to the additional officers that'll come later on this year and next year, and with that, having a new home to call our own."
The police station will be situated on 3.2 acres off of Harmony Road and Timnath Trail Drive, near Poudre Fire Authority Station 8 and Timnath Town Hall. The land has extra space with room to expand in the future as the community grows, Soukup said.
The $13.4 million budget for the 22,000-square-foot, energy-efficient facility was unanimously approved by the Timnath Town Council last month.
"It took a lot of effort and a lot of people working on it" to get to this day, Soukup said. "I can tell you from a fiscal responsibility standpoint there was a lot of effort to make sure it came in at a good, efficient, effective price, and that's where we ended up."
The facility design includes multiple features Timnath police officers have been working without, including:
A processing and short-term holding area
More evidence storage space, including space to safely store drugs
Interview rooms
A patrol briefing area
The facility will have community spaces, including a safe zone for people without an immediate place to go when escaping a dangerous situation, like domestic violence victims. Soukup said there will also be a community meeting space for people meeting up for first dates or for buying and selling transactions.
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"This building will be a quality environment not just for the officers but for the community at large," Jones told the crowd.
The location — right off of Harmony road and also next to a doughnut shop, Jones noted — makes the police station accessible for the community to come to and gives officers easy access to respond to calls across town, Jones said.
"It's exciting," Jones told the Coloradoan after the groundbreaking ceremony. "... We're turning dirt today."
Sady Swanson covers public safety, criminal justice, Larimer County government and more throughout Northern Colorado. You can send your story ideas to her at sswanson@coloradoan.com or on Twitter at @sadyswan. Support her work and that of other Coloradoan journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Timnath breaks ground on new police department off Harmony Road
