“BETHEL POLICE STATION − YES”, a political action committee, urges a YES vote for the construction of a new Police Safety building in Bethel. If you don’t vote Thursday, December 17th, to support our Police, allowing our Town to build our new Police Headquarters, someone else decides for you.
Report by Paula Antolini
December 14, 2015 12:43AM EDT
OPINION / LETTER TO EDITOR
“Bethel Police Station − YES” Political Action Committee Urges a YES Vote On Dec. 17th for New Bethel Police Station
“BETHEL POLICE STATION – YES”, a political action committee, urges a YES vote for the construction of a new Police Safety building in Bethel. If you don’t vote Thursday, December 17th, to support our Police, allowing our Town to build our new Police Headquarters, someone else decides for you. Please take a few minutes, and go to your regular polling place to cast your YES vote.
Along with the many people, members of the public, educators, law enforcement, town officials, Republicans, Democrats, and Unaffiliated voters who have contributed to the action committee, Larry Craybas and I want to inform and advocate, as strongly as possible, to urge Bethel voters to come out on Thursday to vote YES to support our police. Vote YES to fund building our new Police Headquarters. Bethel absolutely needs this, and needs it now. Yet, those who oppose complain about cost and location, while defying and ignoring the facts.
The $13.492 million proposal would fund a modern, secure facility housing the Police, EMS, dispatch, and emergency operations. Built to withstand earthquakes and storms as a 24/7/365 emergency center; cost follows function.
Three separate studies, professionally conducted by experts in the field, all reached the same conclusion; we need this facility as finally proposed. It’s not extravagant. It’s not a palace. It’s a modern Police Station built to today’s exacting standards and designed to serve Bethel’s needs well into the future. The detractors have used scare tactics to confuse and dissuade residents. Some cite and distribute useless statistics that, while impressive when first heard, only serve to misinform. It costs a lot to build a police facility in today’s dollars, and it’s expensive to furnish it with modern and relevant communications equipment, computers, servers, and backup systems. It’s an investment that Bethel must make for the safety and protection of its growing residential base from now until well into the future … and we need to make that investment now.
According to our Town Comptroller, Bethel’s debt service is reducing as old debt is retired. That gives us an opportunity to leverage the Town’s “AAA” bond rating to our best advantage, with a minimal impact on an individual’s property tax. But this isn’t just about a flat impact on taxes!
The old station has insufficient space, inadequate bathroom facilities, a substandard practice range, crowded evidence storage, and a cell block that fails state standards. It can flood. Raw sewage has backed up into the building! We have some 37 officers and 12 citizen employees who work in substandard, cramped conditions, doing the best they can with what’s there. It’s shameful; really, that the people of Bethel haven’t yet had the will to demand change.
Among the most important functions; to prepare for the “shoot/don’t shoot” scenario, a training range is vital. The issue, according to Chief Finch, is judgment, not accuracy. In life or death scenarios, training is everything. There’s no substitute to an in-house facility. This presents neither danger nor noise to the school system. Misinformed scare tactics are simply silly, untrue and nonsense!
Some debate surrounds the proposed location. Yet, the experts all say that the presence of a Police Safety Facility in plain view of the educational campus makes for a “hard target”, adding great deterrent value. In conversation with our Superintendent of schools, members of the Board of Education, police officials and the experts, I’m told this is exactly the best place for this Safety Building. The tactical advantages of a location at the geographic center of town, presents important opportunities for closer rapport with students and educators, and this can only serve to make for a safer and more secure educational facility.
A December referendum rarely brings a large turnout. People, this is IMPORTANT! As I’ve said, if you don’t vote, someone else will decide this for you. Defy the naysayers, and do this for Bethel. Vote YES to support our town and our Police. Vote YES to build our new Police Station.
Bill Hillman, Chair of “Bethel Police Station- Yes”, Lawrence Craybas, Treasurer.
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