By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
Last week, city officials and contractors held the groundbreaking ceremony for the nearly $8.9 million Great Bend police station to be built at the 12th & Baker intersection.
Last Friday morning, City Administrator Kendal Francis said citizens will be able to watch the construction of the 20,100 square-foot facility as a camera will broadcast the process.
The video stream will be linked to the city's website, greatbendks.net, when available.
At the groundbreaking ceremony, Francis thanked the citizens for passing the
.10% sales tax increase to help fund the project.
"Thank you to the citizens who were willing to make an investment in their community by the passage of the sales tax last November," said Francis. "We're ecstatic to have that take place."
Costs for the new police station ballooned since the project first started last
year due to inflating construction expenses. The new police station will
include the municipal courtroom, which could have been eliminated from the
design to save $1.2 million.
"Three and a half months ago we came to the city council knowing that this project was escalating in cost because this situation that is global," said Francis. "One of the suggestions for a cost savings was to cut the municipal court from this project and leave them where they're currently at. The city council understood we have one opportunity to do this project right."
Construction on the facility is set to begin immediately and is expected to be
finished by next August.