$528G design contract for new Southold police station, justice court OKd by unanimous vote of town board 

Engineers can start drafting plans for a new police station and justice court in Southold after the town board unanimously approved the construction.

The town board voted 6-0 on March 28 to approve a $528,000 contract with Nelson + Pope to design the two facilities. Town officials met with representatives of the Melville-based engineering firm last week to outline their vision for the new public safety campus in Peconic.

After more than five years of searching, Southold is expected to close April 19 and pay $1.4 million for 3.79 acres immediately west of the existing police station, according to town attorney Paul DeChance. There, a pair of barns will be razed to make way for a new police station, whose headquarters will be torn down to build a new justice court.

Police Chief Martin Flatley said a new police station was long overdue and the department of 54 officers had outgrown the more than 50-year-old building.

Flatley said the new complex would bring the department closer to accreditation, a voluntary process in which the state Division of Criminal Justice Services determines if law enforcement agencies meet standards for training, storing evidence and reporting incidents, among others.

The new police station will be bigger, with more dispatch stations, and meet state standards for holding cells, interview rooms and evidence storage.

One upgrade Flatley pointed to was audio and video recording capability in interview rooms, which the department does not have. Officers now conduct crime interrogations for  serious felonie s off site, either at the Riverhead Police Department or the Suffolk County Police Department's Seventh Precinct in Shirley, 30 miles west.

“Interview and interrogation is all about the timing of how it's done,” Flatley said. “It makes it a little bit more difficult when you have to travel to another spot to do it.”

Justice court proceedings are held at town hall, in the room used for board meetings. Court offices are housed in a trailer behind town hall.

Town Councilwoman Jill Doherty said the board did not set a deadline for Nelson + Pope to complete their designs. “We want to have a shovel in the ground this time next year,” Doherty said of the timeline.

The vision is to tie the properties, which also include the adjoining town highway yard and animal shelter, into one complex. A new, separate entrance to the existing animal shelter is planned so visitors won’t have to travel through the highway lot as they do now. More green space will be added throughout the property, providing space to walk shelter dogs.

Doherty said the buildings should be designed to accommodate future town growth.

“We owe it to the people that have to visit the court,” she said. “Government places should be safe havens for people, no matter what they’re going through.”

A property survey will determine the layout of the complex. Town officials have not provided an updated project cost, which was estimated at over $20 million in 2022. Construction of each building could take 18 to 24 months.