Groundbreaking for new police station happening Thursday in Idaho Falls
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IDAHO FALLS – A project many years in the making is about to get underway in Idaho Falls.
The Idaho Falls Police Department is holding the groundbreaking ceremony for its new building Thursday morning at the site formerly occupied by the stockyards at 701 Northgate Mile.
The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. Mayor Rebecca Casper will be in attendance and will be giving a few remarks. Police Chief Bryce Johnson will also be speaking.
The construction of the new police complex will be a historic event for the city. The department has never had a standalone, consolidated headquarters in its 127-year history.
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It currently occupies 5,670 square feet inside Bonneville County’s Law Enforcement building, which was built in the 1970s. The department has continued to borrow and lease additional space in other buildings over the years. Johnson told EastIdahoNews.com in 2019 that managing a police department across eight different buildings is not very efficient and is confusing for people trying to report a crime, get fingerprinted or give a witness statement.
Conversations about a new police department began around 2007, but later came to a halt due to the recession. The city purchased the property on Northgate Mile in 2019 and officially announced it would be the site for the new police complex.
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Florida-based Architects Design Group partnered with Idaho Falls-based NBW in designing the project. Ormond Builders in Idaho Falls is the contractor. Construction is expected to begin soon after the groundbreaking.
The ceremony is open to the public.
Later that afternoon, the city will also host a ribbon-cutting for its recently completed Paine substation and a 161-kilovolt transmission line. The substation and power line will be operated by Idaho Falls Power and the event will take place at 2 p.m. at 5995 North River Road.
EastIdahoNews.com is planning to attend both of these events and provide additional updates.
More information is available in the video above.