Sunshine Coast RCMP members who patrol Gibsons and the surrounding rural areas will soon have a new station to call home following a joint announcement between the Town of Gibsons and RCMP Wednesday.
Both Gibsons Mayor Barry Janyk and acting detachment commander Sgt. Russ Howard said the current 50-year-old building on School Road is too old and too small, lacks the proper infrastructure and is in the wrong location.
"It's time. This facility has completely outlived its usefulness," Janyk said. "It's really not practical from the perspective of modern day policing."
The current RCMP satellite office on School Road presents a host of administrative and logistical problems, according to Howard.
"We're right on the edge of a school zone, on a hill, right in a residential area. There's three big minuses right there. We're not at a centralized location," Howard said.
Beyond that, the computer network in the building is too old and slow for RCMP members to do any administrative work, forcing them to drive to Sechelt - taking up time that could be spent policing in Gibsons.
"It will allow the members to do their work down here more efficiently without having to leave and say 'I can sit here for two hours or I can drive up there and do it and come back'," added Sgt. Stuart Falebrinza,
The new location for the facility sits at the top of Sunnycrest Road, right next to Brothers Park and London Drugs, which Howard and Falebrinza said is much more centrally located, making it easier to safely access the highway.
Janyk said the new location is also ideal for putting more RCMP presence in the area where most crimes occur.
"The majority of the incidents the RCMP reported last year in their annual statistics were around London Drugs, Sunnycrest Mall and Elphinstone [Secondary School]," he said "Will the creation of a new police station have an effect on those numbers? My guess is yes. Probably."
The Town has been investigating its options for a new police station for several years. Once Gibsons hits a population of 5,000, it will be responsible for 70 per cent of its policing costs and 100 per cent of the costs of providing a police station, but Gibsons chief administrative officer Paul Gipps was able to secure a deal with the province that will drastically shift the costs off Gibsons' taxpayers.
"In looking at this building, which is now 50-plus years old, knowing that we're facing a census in 2011 and again in 2016, we could actually reach that 5,000 threshold. Inheriting a building of this age would create a significant challenge to the Town's taxpayers," Gipps said.
Under the agreement with the province, the Town must pay for construction of the facility, but will receive annual payments from the province to cover the leasing costs for 10 years or until the Town hits the 5,000 population mark.
The Town was able to acquire 0.5 hectares of land in exchange for waiving development fees for the Upper Gibsons neighbourhood now under construction.
"This is a really good opportunity from a financial planning point of view," Gipps said.
"The people of Gibsons and also the rural areas are all going to benefit because we are going to get a facility and we won't be paying for it," Janyk added.
The building will be built to at least LEED silver environmental standards and will be connected to the Town's geoexchange heating system. Gipps said the surrounding hectare of land is envisioned for further government services, including a potential new municipal hall, though not for many years down the road.
Before the Town can borrow the approximately $4.5 million needed to construct the facility, it must first complete an alternate approval process, a sort of reverse referendum, to get permission from the public.
Gipps said that will likely come in September or October. If all goes well, the shovels will hit the dirt for construction by the end of 2010.
