HUTCHINSON, Kan. — It’s a little inconvenient and noisy, but work is finally getting underway on a complete renovation of the Hutchinson Law Enforcement Center. The $2.2 million project will include a complete overhaul of the 50-year-old building. The sheriff's department has already been relocated and officers and staff from HPD are also relocating while work is ongoing.
Besides the primary contract, the project will entail another estimated $445,000 in work by other specialized vendors, including furniture, electronic door locks and information technology cabling.
Work includes a new lobby, new offices, more storage space and new fixtures. It also includes a law enforcement memorial, but does not include any renovations to the exterior, although that could come at a later date if the project can stay within budget.
Police say there will be some disruptions on how people can visit the department during the project. It also involves having Reno County 911 relocate to its backup site. The 911 offices wanted to stress that at no time will the move diminish the operations of the center. Emergency dispatch released this statement Wednesday:
“Hutchinson-Reno County Emergency Communications will be making a coordinated shift to an alternate site in order to facilitate the remodeling of the current Communications Center at the Law Enforcement Center.”
“The alternate site is a fully-functional Emergency Communications Center which affords us the ability to provide the same quality of service which we are providing now. We will have all of the same access to our telephony equipment and all other data systems which we use on a daily basis.”
“Neither the public nor the Emergency Services Agencies we serve should experience any difference in the level of service provided.”
Work on the law enforcement center will take about 10 months to complete.