OVIEDO, Fla. – On election night, 59% of voters in Oviedo said “no” to a tax hike to replace an aging police headquarters.
It’s the third time the city has asked for millions of dollars to fund a new building.
Chief Dale Coleman said Wednesday he’s uncertain about what the future holds at this point.
“The biggest question I’ve been asked is, ‘Where do we go from here?’” Coleman said. “And, the answer is, today I don’t know.”
Coleman admits he is frustrated by the outcome, but he respects the voters’ wishes.
“The people that have been against it haven’t been against the building. Most of them are just against the tax increase along with other tax increases, along with other cost of living,” Coleman said. “The price of living is going up and I truly understand that. I mean, it affects all of us the same way.”
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The public safety building is 34 years old, and the police department has outgrown it as Oviedo has grown.
The city first asked voters to consider funding a new building nearly 10 years ago. It was approved, but they never broke ground because $11 million wasn’t enough to cover the construction costs at the time.
Last year, the city put together a $49 million proposal, which voters rejected. This time around they tried a smaller, scaled back approach and asked voters to approve $32 million for a 28,800 square-foot complex, and the public still said no.
Coleman spoke with News 6 reporter Catherine Silver about the challenges he and his staff face on a daily basis in the old building.
“One of the issues is the condition of the building. We have roof leaks, and we’ve had some outside flooding coming in,” said the chief. “But mostly what we’re dealing with is space. We ran out of room.”
Coleman says they’ve struggled to find space for training. The investigations unit is overfull and needs to be expanded.
“I’ve got to find room for them, which will probably be the classroom that we use for everything else but a classroom,” Coleman said.
The reality is Coleman needed a solution — not tomorrow, but yesterday.
“The projections are it’s usually two to four years start to finish once you have the funding,” Coleman said. “Which we do not have. So, what do we do? We make do. We probably need to look at some other places to do other training that gives us the square footage to do it, and rent them or borrow them, however that can be done.”
The chief said he will also look at repurposing some rooms, which will likely lead to dividing the classroom space they have into more cubicles.
“Just look at the needs of the department and start adjusting what little space we can use in here even more efficiently,” Coleman said.
The city has already earmarked federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) toward the building. That money will be used for a new roof.
“We would have needed that new roof anyway because we’ve had leaks in the building for quite a few years,” said Coleman. “So, that’s a way to at least get the building where it’s not leaking as much as it has been.”
Oviedo Mayor Megan Sladek has spoken before about possibly using penny sales tax money for a new building. Voters in Seminole County overwhelmingly renewed that measure Tuesday night.
Coleman says that will be a discussion for the council and city staff, but they will have to do something sooner, rather than later.
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