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Police station to open in late July

While construction of the new RCMP building is nearly completed, the official opening will not take place until the end of July.

While construction of the new RCMP building is nearly completed, the official opening will not take place until the end of July.

Municipal treasurer Ken Ostraat said the bulk of the construction work finished in mid-May.

The elevator is scheduled to be installed on June 4.

“There’s still a little bit of work left to clean up,” he said.

The exterior cladding, which was expected to be completed this week, had also taken longer than initially expected.

Ostraat said the building will be ready for occupancy by the end of June, but the RCMP will not move in until they have installed their communications equipment.

Construction on the $4.5 million facility began last year and while the cost is slightly higher than the budgeted amount, Ostraat said the increase is not significant.

The new building, on Peach Orchard Road, will replace the existing RCMP facility on Jubilee Road East.

It has around 835 square metres of usable area and a basement of around 450 square metres. The basement may not be used for office space or cells.

The present RCMP building was constructed in 1969 and was used as a restaurant until it was converted to house the police in 1975.

The building is showing signs of age and is badly crowded. The cells were condemned in 2005 and prisoners are now taken to cells in Penticton.

At present, the detachment has nine officers and two support workers, more than double the staffing level in 1975.

 



John Arendt

About the Author: John Arendt

John Arendt has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years. He has a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Journalism degree from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute.
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