As the Wareham Police Department has outgrown its current station, plans for a new Public Safety Complex that would also house Emergency Medical Services and, potentially, other town departments have started to take shape. So far, the Public Safety Study Committee has reviewed two potential locations, and has started to discuss the potential scope of the complex.

Voters at the October Town Meeting approved $165,000 to fund a building study to examine feasibility, fund a preliminary design, and pay for appraisal of the current station and site. The town planned to fund the project largely with revenue from Verilife, the recreational and medical marijuana dispensary on Main Street. 

One quarter of the revenue the town receives from marijuana sales is put into the Municipal Facilities Stabilization Fund, which will be used to fund the new complex and, later, to maintain and upgrade other municipal buildings. Because these funds were allocated by Town Meeting, they cannot be used for any other purpose without another Town Meeting vote.

The study committee began working in January, before the pandemic, and has recently continued its study on the potential future home of multiple town departments.

Committee members visited two possible sites on Monday, June 29: a town-owned wooded area  on Minot Avenue, and the current Decas School, which will close in 2022 when the new school is complete. They then met on Thursday morning, July 2, to discuss the pros and cons of  the two  locations and determine what steps need to be taken next to make it a reality. 

The Decas School was built in 1968, but is still in relatively good shape. Since the building is already in place and equipped with utilities, the site work would be minimal. Bringing the older building up to code, however, might become expensive. 

The biggest issue with the Decas School is that it is not centrally located in town, which could be problematic for emergency medical services. 

Committee Chair Claire Smith said that response times from the Decas School to the Bourne line could be as long as 15 minutes, meaning some ambulances would need to be stationed elsewhere. 

Traffic from the nearby Wareham Crossing Mall could also be an issue for first responders. 

The wooded area is much more centrally located, and features easy access to Main Street and Onset. 

It’s unclear how expensive it might be to clear the land to build the facility, but committee members noted that the 26-acre parcel of land has plenty of room for future expansions if needed. 

While the Decas School location is still being considered, Police Chief John Walcek said that “at the end of the day, I think that Minot Avenue is the better of the two sites.” 

Others on the committee agreed, given the central location of the site. 

Before the committee can consult engineers for the costs associated with either location, they will have to determine the overall “scope” of the proposed facility. 

Therefore, the committee’s next step will be to determine which other town agencies would be interested in using the site. 

The committee’s next meeting will be on July 16 at 5 p.m. to gauge interest from other town departments. Committee members suggested starting with Harbormaster Garry Buckminster on July 16, and possibly consulting officials from the Wareham and Onset Fire Departments at the following meeting.

The committee has also tentatively planned on visiting facilities in other towns to get inspiration for what the new facility in Wareham could look like. The group has already visited some other local facilities, including the new police station in Dartmouth.

Examples mentioned during the July 2 meeting were the “campus style” Middleboro Police Station and the combined police and fire station in Seekonk.

As the town has grown, and 911 calls have skyrocketed in recent years, officials have determined that the current Wareham Police Station is simply too small. 

The building was first deemed to be too small in a study back in 1988. Another study in 1995 recommended replacing the facility with one about 30,000 sq. ft. in size, which is five times the size of the current station. Studies in 2002 and 2006 again deemed the building to be inadequate.

In 1990, the Wareham Police Department received about 29,000 calls. In 2019, the department received over 50,000 calls.