2 weeks Ago By MIKE KONZ Kearney Hub
In three weeks, the construction manager and funding strategy for the new Kearney/Buffalo County Law Enforcement Center will be determined. May 13 is the date when contacts will be awarded to one of the three financial management firms bidding on the estimated $65 million to $70 million project and to one of the six construction firms bidding to build the 90,000-square-foot law enforcement structure. On Tuesday, the Buffalo County Board of Commissioners opened bids for construction and financing of the project and immediately began evaluating each of the bids.
The firms that submitted bids for the construction manager contract are: Sletten Corp. of Las Vegas. Beckenhauer Construction of Norfolk.
Sampson Construction of Kearney. MCL Construction of Kearney and Omaha. JE Dunn of Omaha; and, Hausmann Construction of Lincoln.
The three firms that are bidding on the financial phase of the project are: Northland Securities, a division of FNBO. Piper Sandler of Lincoln; and, DA Davidson of Lincoln. The site for the 90,000-square-foot law enforcement center will be the tract formerly occupied by the Midtown Western Inn and Lodge Restaurant.
The new law enforcement center has become necessary because the Kearney and Buffalo County law enforcement agencies have grown during the center’s 30-year span, and they no longer can accommodate the personnel and technology housed in the original center in downtown Kearney. A 14-member committee has been touring law enforcement facilities around the nation for ideas that might be incorporated into the new building. So far, according to the committee members, the best idea has been in Kearney, where sheriff’s deputies and police officers have shared the space and worked together in their joint law enforcement center.
The selection committee includes County Board Chair Sherry Morrow, Facilities Manager Steve Gaasch, County Administrator Lynn Martin, City Manager Brenda Jensen, Kearney business manager Jon Watts and Wilkins architect Jason Sertich. Other committee members are county commissioners Timothy Higgins and former KPD Chief Dan Lynch, Sheriff Neil Miller, Chief Deputy Dan Schleysener, Police Chief Bryan Waugh, KPD Capt. Kevin Thompson, Council member Tami James Moore and Wilkins managing principal Kali Eklund.
The committee traveled to Lubbock, Abelene and Weatherford, Texas, Council Bluffs, Iowa, and five Nebraska communities, including Bellevue, Sarpy County, Elkhorn, Columbus and Grand Island. Committee members reported that none of the communities they visited could fathom how cops and sheriff’s deputies operate under the same roof, as they do in Kearney. However, it became apparent during the visits that the Kearney/Buffalo County facility is undersized.
What once were janitors closets now are used for weapons storage or interview rooms. Also, investigators who had crowded into tight space in the law enforcement center now have been relocated to a separate building near the law enforcement center. Gaasch, Buffalo County’s facilities manager, said that the current Kearney/Buffalo County building is about 30,000 square feet; however, 60,000 square feet would suit the two local law agencies much better.
To get an idea of 65,000 to 70,000 square feet, that’s about 80% of the square footage now occupied by Marshall’s, Ross’s Dress for Less, PetSmart and Five Below in Kearney’s former Kmart building at 4700 Second Ave. Although the facilities the committee visited are employing unique ideas to accommodate today’s tech-reliant law enforcement, none of the departments were co-located as in Kearney/Buffalo County. “Every one of them had a hard time wrapping their minds around how we’re co-located,” Commissioner Sherry Morrow of Kearney said.
Housing police and sheriff’s personnel and dispatchers under the same roof has contributed to efficiency, collaboration and cost savings..
