Provo officials and the city police and fire departments held an open house on Nov. 6 concerning the future of the new building for the city’s police, fire and emergency dispatch and other city departments.
The plans are funded by a $69 million bond that passed last year.
Provo Chief of Police Richard Ferguson shared his excitement for the future construction of the building.
“I’ve been with the police force for almost 29 years and I’m ecstatic,” he said.
Because some of the city's police buildings are currently in what Ferguson called “failure mode,” he said he anticipates the new building will help the different police force units work together better as well as individually.
“As a chief, this is huge,' he said.
Provo Fire Chief Jim Miguel, who has attended approximately 30 other meetings about the bond, said he was excited to witness the plans for the new building.
He expressed the importance of showing the architectural plans to residents to show them what the city is planning on doing with the money generated through taxes.
“It is important that the community gets to see (the plans) before things are set in stone,” Miguel said. “This is probably the best mix that we could possibly have meeting the needs of the city and being fiscally responsible.'
While representatives of the fire, police and city council departments were excited about the unveiling of these plans, many residents attended the meeting to learn more about what they should anticipate about the upcoming structure.
Provo resident Gloria Wheeler was one of many in attendance
to see the plans firsthand.
She said she's glad the building will be in downtown Provo and that she is pleased to see the plans were built primarily around the needs of the people who will be using it and not just what the architectural designers thought would be best.
“As far as I can see, it looks like they did a good job of listening
and trying to meet the needs,” Wheeler said.
Her only concern revolved around parking and whether there will be enough spaces for everyone who will use the building.
The project's planners, however, told her that there will be enough spaces as far as they can tell.