Some work is still being done today, May 18, 2017 but there will be a ribbon cutting for the new RCMP Police Services Building next month.
(ADAM PROSKIW / iNFOnews.ca)
May 18, 2017 - 7:00 PM
KELOWNA – Members of Kelowna RCMP begin moving into their new $48 million Police Services Building next week.
Project manager Andrew Gibbs acknowledges the projected four-week move in period is starting later than was anticipated, but the massive project is “substantially complete.”
“There’s always last minute stuff,” he says. “We’re getting there.”
An official ribbon cutting is planned for June 27, according to Gibbs, and will mark the final transition from the old, cramped location on Doyle Avenue, which was built in the 1960s. The new facility brings together three locations currently scattered across the city. Traffic Services, Identification, police dogs and records storage will all be under one roof, RCMP spokesperson Kerry Solinski said during a tour of the facility March 3, 2017.
Construction on the project began in September 2015 and Gibbs says it will finish on budget.
The $48 million tab, which includes infrastructure improvements around the Clement Avenue and Richter Street area, will be paid by Kelowna property taxpayers over the next 30 years and was approved by an alternate approval process in March 2014.
There will also be a more streamlined intake for prisoners and a more secure prison block. With 29 cells instead of only 22, the Kelowna detachment will also be able to detain and hold more prisoners – up to three per cell.
The 95,000 square foot building also has a modern forensics laboratory and is designed so that it can be easily expanded in the future.
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