Lindsay Weber
The Morning Call
(TNS)
Last year, Allentown allocated $9 million for public safety projects in its 2024 budget; half of those funds would go toward a new police building, and half to a new fire station.
But City Council on Wednesday voted 6-1 to transfer the entire $9 million to the new police building. City officials stressed that they were not leaving the fire department in the lurch, but that they needed to meet a federal funding deadline in order to keep the money in city coffers.
The city is using a cut of its $57 million in American Rescue Plan funding for the two public safety projects. The law, which passed in 2021 and approved billions of dollars for pandemic recovery efforts, requires cities to allocate all funding to specific sources by the end of 2024. Any funding that is not earmarked must be sent back to the federal government, according to the law.
But the effort to rehabilitate the police station is much further along than plans for a new central fire station.
Consultants with Alloy5 in February presented plans for a $28 million renovation and addition to the existing police headquarters on Fourth Street, which would give the police department space to grow its force and have all officers stationed in one building. City Council in August voted to hire Alvin H. Butz as the project’s construction manager for $1.1 million.
The fire department, on the other hand, has not made plans public for the new Central Fire station. A feasibility study to evaluate a replacement is “just being finished up,” fire Chief Efrain Agosto said. The Central Fire replacement is more complicated because the city is looking at alternate locations to put the new building, whereas police are building an addition on a structure and land they already own.
“It would be more beneficial for this money to be allotted over to [the police building] project, because they’re already moving forward with it,” Agosto said.
City officials have long said that the Central Fire station needs to be replaced. The 1920s-era building is plagued by roof leaks, pests, lack of storage space and a crumbling building facade. The police building has less dire structural issues, but has capacity and efficiency problems.
Council member Ce-Ce Gerlach, the only member to vote against the transfer, said she thought that the city administration has “reversed” its priorities for the two buildings.
“When I got on council, all I ever heard about was dire need for fire station to be honest, I didn’t hear nothing about the police,” Gerlach said. “Now it’s like a reverse, like a 360, where now it’s the police headquarters is the priority over fire.”
Agosto said neither building is the “priority” over the other, but that the Central Fire replacement is more complicated, which is why it will take longer.
Both projects are projected to cost in the eight figures. Even with the American Rescue Plan funding, the city will likely need to take out loans or bonds to afford the construction costs.
The city is also facing a projected $6 million deficit in 2025, although more exact financial projections will be available when the city presents its budget in the fall.
Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at [email protected].
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