The Town of Middletown held a groundbreaking at the site of the Middletown Police Department’s new building, located on 130 Hampden Road adjacent to Willow Grove Mill, in March. However, poor ground at the site meant actual construction needed to be delayed.
    After a redesign of the building, complete with a new basement, construction officially began on Monday.
    “Residents should see visible signs of a police station going up in two to three weeks,” said Kristen Krenzer, public relations officer for the Town of Middletown.
    Krenzer said Kershaw Construction, the contractors for the site work, were making the ground level for the parking lot/building area and as they were working, they found the soil had too many organics in it. The soil would be crushed down when weight was put on it, but would not compact or get firm.
    Tony Yarmolyk of Kershaw Construction said this means the soil would be unable to sustain the weight of a building.
    “You either got to replace that material or restructure your building so you hit structurally-sound material,” Yarmolyk said.
    Digging deeper into the soil means digging up a greater amount of good soil to use to make the foundation. Krenzer said the town decided to add a basement rather than cart in fill dirt because a basement would allow the police to have more space and delay a potential expansion on the building in the future.
    “We’re looking at the long-range expansion,” Krenzer said. “We won’t have to expand for 10 years now that we have the basement.”
    Krenzer said the building will remain sound now and this soil problem is a common one for builders.
    “This isn’t something new or different,” she said.
    The original plans for the station called for it to be 10,700 square feet. The front of the building will be elevated and the back will feature a sallie port in which cars can drive into and out of the building.
    Burris said this plan will remain the same, although the basement will be under most of the building.
    “It’s under the building except where the hold area is,” Burris said. “[It’s] about 8,000 feet.”
    Middletown Police Chief Hank Tobin said the current plan is for the basement to contain the evidence rooms, supply rooms, armory, locker rooms, workout rooms and information technology office. The first floor will have the reception office, administrative offices, detectives’ office, patrol section, processing room, community meeting room and cell blocks near the sallie port.
    Krenzer said the building can still be expanded with an addition if the need arises.
    Tobin said the building will probably not be filled up on either floor at first. Both floors will have some extra rooms walled off to expand into in the future.
    “In the end it’s going to be much more cost-effective this way,” Tobin said.
    Krenzer said while the department is not severely hindered by the lack of a police building or needs to be out of the town hall by a certain date, having a building is still prefered.
    Tobin said without their own building, residents need to call from outside the Town Hall, where they department currently resides, for the police when the office is not open, and a 24-hour facility would allow residents to enter the building and speak to a receptionist right away. The Middletown Police Department has to do its interviews with suspects or processing of prisoners at either the New Castle County Southern Patrol Unit or Delaware State Police Building Troop 9. It also needs to use Troop 9 as a temporary holding space for prisoners.
    “Everyone’s very excited,” Tobin said. “They can’t wait for the building to be built.”
    Burris said the revised schedule for the construction is not complete, but he predicts the building will be complete by October or a little later.
    “It all depends, as usual, on the weather,” Krenzer said. “If we have too much rain, it holds things up.”
    “[The new building will] be our home,” Tobin said. “That’s the nice part about it.”