A $2 million remodel of the Stillwater Police Department is complete, and a new entrance is ready for use.
Now, the public gets a chance to see it.
An open house will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, with a ribbon cutting, refreshments and guided tours.
The city’s police and fire departments used to share the lower level of City Hall. But in August 2015 the fire department moved to a new station near the Minnesota National Guard Readiness Center in the western part of the city. That left space for the police department to expand.
The remodel doubled the police department’s old footprint and includes a 24-hour vestibule, a lobby, a training room, interview rooms and an evidence room with pass-through lockers. “Everything gets barcoded and scanned and put in the lockers,” Police Chief John Gannaway said during a recent tour.
“The old police facility was substandard in several ways,” he said. “The new one is professional and vastly improves working conditions.”
One of the major improvements is garage space for the marked patrol units. “They used to have to be parked outside all year round,” he said. “We invest quite a bit of money in the squad cars. Now we are protecting that investment.”