It was a legitimate question.
Why not, asked a viewer of last week’s City of Manteca town hall meeting live streamed on Facebook, seek a vacant building for a new police station as a lower cost alternative?
Police Chief Stephen Schluer noted there are specific construction standards required for police stations — as well as fire stations — that are mandated by the state.
Both new fire and police stations must meet a higher earthquake resistance standard in order to remain functional after a major tremblor.
And there are special needs such as holding cells, secure access points for the movement of suspects from vehicles, and other issues such as perimeter security that can’t be easily placed in existing footprints.
This is not just conjecture on the city’s part.
Twice in the past 20 years in a bid to save money the city bought existing buildings — one for a fire station and one for a police station — to save money.
First the fire station.
When Manteca was looking to build a fire station to serve northwest Manteca, municipal leaders balked at the cost of $1.9 million cost of building a new structure.
They looked at a vacant building just north of Louise Avenue along Union Road next to a gas station that was originally built as medical offices but had been sold to the local Carpenter’s Union as a union hall.
The city paid the Carpenter’s Union $1,175,000 for it in November 2007.
An analysis at the time noted the building was high enough to be retrofitted with engine bays to hold firefighting equipment.
The city, at the time, thought it would take another $300,000 to convert it, saving $400,000 between that and the purchase price compared to new construction.
When they got down to specific drawings, earthquake standards and other considerations sent the cost soaring past the $2 million mark.
The city ended up selling it to Valley CAPS in 2011 for $800,000. That reflected a loss to taxpayers of $375,000 with no fire station to show for it.
The proceeds were used to help cover the cost of the station that was eventually built on Lathrop Road west of Union Road adjacent to the Del Webb neighborhood.
Next was an idea to save money building a new police station by buying the former Qualex photo processing building at 555 Industrial Park Drive.
That came up after the city spent $2.6 million to purchase 8 acres at 682 South Main Street 20 years ago for a South County criminal justice complex along with a police department. Plans fell through when the county opted to build a new courthouse in downtown Stockton instead.
When that proposal collapsed, the city bought the former Qualex building at 555 Industrial Park Drive for $3.6 million in 2006 to house a police department. The city dropped plans to convert that building as well.
The reason?
After investing additional funds in earthquake retrogrades, the state changed the rules requiring all new police stations with holding cells to have 24/7 correctional officers
That would have increased the annual police budget at the time in 2007 by $400,000 — a cost the city can’t afford.
Police car wear & tear
Schluer also offered insight as to why patrol units start becoming unreliable at 150,000 miles.
Due to onboard computers needed for officers to do their jobs to hunt down outstanding warrants, run driver licenses, license plate scanners, radio equipment and more, police units are never turned off once an officer starts a 10-hour shift.
That’s because it can take between two minutes or more to power up equipment.
It is time that officers can’t afford if an emergency comes up.
As such, the police chief said Public Works Director Carl Brown noted the 10 hours straight of vehicles running is the equivalent of putting on twice the mileage.
That means the wear and tear on a police patrol vehicle at 150,000 miles is the equivalent of 300,000 miles.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com