By Andrew Vonderschmitt
In 1976 Placerville city leaders had the idea for a public safety facility but by the time it was built in 1978 it was clear the building was not quite up to the task. Sgt. Ray Bosnich at the time said, “We ran out of room when we moved in.” Yet, the Placerville Police Department has been in the same location since.
“We’ve grown as the population has grown, which is what you would want,” said Police Chief Joseph Wren. The infrastructure supporting the department, however, has not grown.
Wren invited the Mountain Democrat for a tour of the police station after a needs assessment was approved last month for a public safety building — a joint police and fire headquarters.
The tour began in the lobby, a small space that could comfortably host around six people. It is also the only public area in the station…
“Some of the offices have three or four desks in them,” Wren said, showing one such office. “When the building was built it was not built for future expansion.”
Placerville’s population was around 6,500 at the time of construction and the idea that the city would grow, nearly doubling its population in less than 50 years, was not part of the overall concept for the building. Around 11,000 people currently reside in Placerville and the daytime population hovers around 25,000 with county offices, the courthouse and other institutions bringing employees into town during working hours.
While the facility has not grown with the city, the police force has indeed kept up. In ’76 there were 23 employees at the police department, today there are more than 40 officers and support staff employed by the department. They answer up to 2,600 service calls a month, which averages out at around 40-50 calls, per shift…
Both the fire district board and City Council unanimously approved a needs assessment study at a cost of $140,000 to be paid at a 50/50 split between the city of Placerville and the El Dorado County Fire Protection District. Dewberry Architects Inc. has been awarded the contract to perform the needs assessment study. …
READ MORE: https://www.mtdemocrat.com/news/study-to-evaluate-need-for-new-police-fire-headquarters-in-placerville/.