There has been a recent change for the Chesterton Police Department. At the end of August, they moved down the road into a new station.
But why the change?
“The original structure of the former Chesterton police station was built in the 1960s,” said Police Chief Timothy Richardson.
He then went on to explain that back then the station was volunteer only and there were no women. That means the station had no women’s bathrooms or locker rooms because they were not needed back then. There also was not as much technology as there is today and the old technology did not take up as much space. The old building is smaller than it should be for all the technology, and now women are working there too, so an upgrade was needed.
Many community member wondered why a new building was needed, instead of just adding on to the old one.
“The professional recommendation from engineers is that we would barely see any monetary savings by remodeling, as we would have needed a second story, and the old structure wasn’t engineered to support a second story addition, without considerable added expenses,” Richardson explained.
The structure itself is old, having been built about 60 years ago. Many changes needed to be made to make it a better fit for today. All those changes would have totalled the same amount or more money required to remodel the old station rather than build a new one. Since it was about the same to upgrade as it was to rebuild, the department chose to rebuild.
However, there are more additions than bathrooms and more space for technology in the new station.
“The new Police Station offers numerous building safety enhancements that could not be achieved with the old building,” Richardson said.
With a new station, there are new practices that were put in place. There is now a 30-person training room that they could not fit in the old building. This new room also allows them to train the police officers and invite professional trainers to help train Chesterton police officers and the officers in surrounding stations. Additionally, there are more rooms to help the officers take time after a rough call.
The police chief believes that the new station can serve the community better the old one as well.
“In our new state-of-the-art facility, we will be able to offer, and deliver, additional services to the Duneland public,” Richardson said.
With the new facility, they can expand their mental health offerings to the public. As well as they can enhance their training so they can provide the best services that are possible for the residents of Chesterton. There will also be new programs, like the citizen police academy, and more programs extended to the youth. The official move-in for the department was on August 29, 2024.
“Because we were able to continue working out of the old police station during construction, we began preparing for the move about one year ago,” Richardson said.
During construction, they were able to scan old records and reports. They were also able to go through all the rooms and decide what they should and should not keep. The new station is fully finished and open to the public for decades to come.
Richardson and the staff love the new building so far, but the chief wanted to make sure to thank many people. Richardson shouted out the Chesterton Town Council, The Board of Metropolitan Police Commissioners, the citizens of Chesterton, Chief Cisco Rodriguez, each town department, Mr. Rick Urschel, and the Urschel family. Without the help and support of each of these people, the new station would not be what it is now.
