Construction begins on Grapevine Public Safety Building

Construction has begun on the new Public Safety Building approved by voters in 2013 as part of a $68 million bond proposal package that included funds for an upgraded community center.

The state-of-the-art public safety facility will be located on Dallas Road and will be home to the Police Department, Municipal Court, Fire Department Administration, Information Technology Department and Logistics.

The Public Safety Building is scheduled to open in the spring of 2017.

“The Public Safety Building is the result of years of planning and hard work by the City Council and our public safety and all the other department personnel who have had such an important role to play,” City Manager Bruno Rumbelow said. “Grapevine citizens were wholly supportive of this initiative and approved the bonds for the building by a wide margin. It is great to now see the construction begin at the site on Ira E. Woods and we are excited to watch this important project take shape as we move toward an opening in early 2017.”

The multilevel facility will feature three different buildings on one campus totaling approximately 104,000 square feet. First responders will benefit from enhanced technology allowing them to better assist Grapevine citizens, supporters say.

Police Chief Eddie Salame addressed the City Council on July 21 about staffing and other needs, using the opportunity to rave about how the new building would better serve the city and the community.

The city has far outgrown the current location, with a city population of around 10,000 in the early days climbing to about 50,000. Plus, he said, tourism, area traffic and other factors can raise that number to closer to 100,000 “on any given day.”

“There’s not a day when the jail is empty,” the police chief said. “We are always in business.”

In November 2013, residents gave the OK on the proposed sale of almost $70 million in general obligation bonds for construction of a new public safety building and the doubling in size of the city’s community recreation center.

The latter, which opened in April, is a vastly upgraded multi-generational recreation center that the City Council named The REC of Grapevine — for recreation, education and community. The former Community Activities Center increased in size from 48,000 square feet to 108,000 square feet.

It includes a senior center, indoor pool, multipurpose rooms, game room, lockers, meeting rooms and other amenities.

“The Council spent literally months on both of these items,” Rumbelow said.

Assistant City Manager Jennifer Hibbs talked of the need for a new public safety building when the idea was first proposed to the public.

She said the current building was never a good fit, she said.

“That building was built as an office building originally for Braniff, so it was never meant to be a police department and certainly not for a city of our size,” Hibbs said. “We’ve grown in population quite a lot since we moved in there in 1978 and it just doesn’t fit the needs of the department at all.”

Salame spoke to the City Council about its current usage mainly for police operations.

“We’re kind of the last man standing,” Salame said.

Hibbs said the new building would help the efficiency of fire and police departments “working together under one roof.”

Another bonus would be housing the IT department in the state-of-the-art, secure facility.

“It’s really important because IT plays such a critical function in the city, especially in the police department,” the assistant city manager said. “It’s important that those servers be housed in a safe location.”

This story was originally published July 28, 2015 at 6:19 PM with the headline "Construction begins on Grapevine Public Safety Building."