Plans presented for new boro police headquarters Building and code enforcement depts. to remain at Poplar Ave. BY CHRISTINE VARNO Staff Writer Preliminary design of the West Long Branch police headquarters WEST LONG BRANCH - The preliminary design plans for a new West Long Branch police headquarters building on Broadway were unveiled last week. The plans call for a 10,000-square-foot building to be constructed at the site of Borough Hall at 965 Broadway, architect Andrew Trocchia Jr. explained at the Feb. 7 Borough Council caucus meeting. "We believe this plan is efficient and effective as far as police operations go," said Trocchia, of Sonnenfeld and Trocchia Architect, Holmdel. The plans are still in the preliminary phase and the estimated cost of the project falls within the $2.75 million budget established by the council for the building project, Trocchia said. The plans will be available for the public to view in Borough Hall. Plans call for police headquarters to relocate from the moldy former town hall at 95 Poplar Ave. to a new building next to borough hall. The council decided in December that the construction and code enforcement offices would continue to operate at Popular Avenue. Back in 2004, Trocchia worked with the borough on a "building program" and studied several different options for the police building. One option was to design a structure next to borough hall to include police headquarters and the two building offices. That project was estimated to be a 20,000-square-foot building, Trocchia explained. When council opted to leave the construction and code enforcement offices at Poplar, it reduced the size of the building by half, Trocchia said. The police building project call for a two-story building to be constructed in a steel frame with all the needed police amenities, Rich Culp, project architect with Trocchia's firm, said to the council. Culp and Trocchia said at the meeting that they have worked extensively with borough Police Chief Arthur N. Cosentino in designing the interior of the building. The outside of the building will be sided with a material and design similar to the borough hall building, Culp said, adding that some sections of the building will feature a stone or glass finish to make the building "more open and more prominent." Plans also call for the building to be constructed with a flat roof and air-handling equipment to be installed on top of the building. Mayor Janet Tucci said she had concerns about a flat roof. "I am scared of flat roofs," Tucci said at the meeting. "Unless they have improved over the years, flat roofs inevitably leak." Trocchia said a sloped roof could be cheaper, but it limits where the air-handling equipment could be installed. "There is an option to put the equipment on the ground," Culp said. "In the post 9-11 world, we are advised to not put air-handling equipment where it can be tampered with. "We have done it in Middletown," he said. Trocchia said the architects are looking at sloped roofs and if council decides to not support the flat roof to let him know so he can explore other options. The plans also include 10 additional public parking spaces to be added at the site, a police yard area with 16 spaces for police vehicles, a ballfield on the site and a playground. The current semicircular driveway in front of borough hall is slated to be eliminated and replaced with a single straight front with an entrance and exit point. A new one-way exit is also included in the plans for police to access, according to Culp. Tucci said at the end of the presentation that there will be time for council and the public to view the plans and present any questions before there is a vote on the project.