Wells Township police moving to renovated facility | News, Sports, Jobs

WONDERFUL — Before the end of the year, the Wells County Police Department will officially move into a new facility; Police Chief Sean Norman believes it will meet the department’s operational needs and provide a central location for town functions.

Renovations have been underway on part of the former Buckeye North Elementary School building for about a year. The police department will occupy about one-third of the 30,000 square feet of space on the first floor.

In addition to providing offices for Wells Township’s secretary and treasurer, the completed space will also house the police department in what used to be the combined offices of the school superintendent and nurse.

The department’s office will have four workstations that will be connected to a yet-to-be-built garage. The garage, intended to house the department’s cruisers, is funded by a $159,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Norman, who will carry out his duties among other officers rather than having his own office, explained that everything in the space will have controlled access with permission levels granted via key fobs.

Adorning the wall of the department office will be a quote from Deputy Chief Will Johnson of the Arlington, Texas, Police Department: “What did I do today, in this encounter, in this traffic stop, in this call, to earn the right to police this community?”

“When I saw that (the quote) I got goosebumps because that’s why we’re here.” Norman said.

The department will use a new evidence room with three-tier controlled access for evidence integrity, a break room with a fully equipped kitchen, and a private interview room. Equipped with four cameras and a microphone, the interview room is capable of recording 24/7 (writing to a hard disk when activated by a light switch), which can then be transmitted to the district courts or prosecutor’s office.

The building, which is currently being renovated, has allowed the department to host training that would not have been possible before.

The facilities are expected to be completed by October; Norman said that time depends on when contractors can be scheduled for work in sequence.

New opportunities will be provided “Give officers the tools they need to effectively serve the community.” Norman added that the new space would relieve the department from ongoing frustrations over a lack of room for growth.

The Wells County Police Department, staffed by six full-time officers, including a school resource officer and several part-time employees, is currently based in a former school building on the north end of Brilliant.

The school building, built in the 1890s, is not conducive to modern police department operations, Norman said. For example, the space has a limited number of workstations and electrical outlets and no key fob system. There is no private meeting room, which means meetings must take place in the Wells County Board of Trustees rooms.

Efforts to renovate the former Buckeye North Elementary School for police department and district use began around 2022, when a member of the Buckeye Local Board of Education notified trustees that the building was available, according to Trustee Ben Batenburg.

Batenburg said trustees toured the building, which was built in 1965, and found it to be in surprisingly good condition, as it had not been used for a decade.

The trustees signed an in-kind agreement with the school district; Under that agreement, the school district would receive the building and adjacent football field in exchange for paying to renovate the existing Buckeye North Elementary School bus garage, build a new storage shed and survey approximately 7 acres of land. -property and demolition of old stands on the field – work totaling about $20,000.

“The Buckeye Local school board has been very, very gracious to us and I can’t thank them enough for all their support.” Batenburg added that the district agreed to allow students to use the football field for recess.

Subsequent renovations were funded by local tax revenue, partly from police and entertainment taxes, but most came from the county’s general fund, Batenburg said. The municipality tried to keep some jobs in-house to cut costs.

The police department will be the first to move into the renovated building, but Batenburg said the county government as a whole will eventually sell the old building and move to the new building. “Combine everything in one place” and create an all-encompassing department and record keeping area.

Batenburg said the biggest advantage of the new building is its proximity to the fire department.

“We are 200 meters away from the fire department (EMS)” he said. “If something happens, we’re right here in this central part and that makes everything work. We are not a mile away; We are not in your sights.”

Batenburg and Norman noted that proximity to the existing elementary school is very important. A line of communication will be maintained between the school and the police department to enable immediate response in the event of an emergency.

Batenburg said he hopes the new building’s 10,000-square-foot gymnasium will serve as an indoor recreation center for local youth and, once its stage is replaced, will host trustee meetings as well as wedding receptions and graduation parties. Additionally, the gym was designated as the voting center for the Wells Township precinct by the Jefferson County Board of Elections.

Norman trusted Batenburg’s vision to win him over in the new building. This vision envisions the structure as a business and community hub that leverages new interstate traffic from the Wellsburg-Brilliant bridge to create a hub of economic opportunity.

In addition to the recently moved Brilliant and the Wells Township Historical Museum, several businesses are interested in occupying the remaining 50,000 square feet of developable space, Batenburg said. One of these businesses is a health institution that wants to establish a nursery.

Batenburg stated that the development opportunities are very wide, adding that the first floor is suitable for disabled access. To him, filling the community center is an investment in the next generation.

“I looked at it not as something that was very important to me, but for my grandchildren and future people.” Batenburg said. “We cannot live in the past. We look at tomorrow and ask, ‘What will be good for the whole society 10 years from now?’ “We need to ask.”

Batenburg said he would explore state-level grants to support the project, noting that state Sen. Brian Chavez, R-Marietta, recently visited the building and was impressed.

Wells Township’s police officers are surviving in their current positions, Norman said, so it wouldn’t be impossible to wait a little longer for the renovations to be completed. Batenburg added that when this transition period begins, the goal is for it to be seamless.

Whether it’s police improvements or long-term community benefits, the building’s potential is great, and time will tell how the Wells Township community will evolve to accommodate new housing.

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