Price Tag For New Quincy PD Station Leaves City Councilors Unsure

QUINCY, MA- Quincy Mayor, Thomas Koch, has asked the city council for approval to use an additional $120 million to finish the construction of a new station for the Quincy Police Department. The Quincy City Council expressed that before they make a decision on this, they want to see a breakdown of how the money will be spent.

This police station project has already cost Quincy close to $33 million for pre-construction and land purchases. When the request was brought to the council, it was moved to the council's finance committee to be presented by the city's building department. The new station is planned to be four stories high and take up 120,000 square feet.

Chris Walker, Mayor Koch's Chief of Staff, talked about the need for the updated station with The Patriot Ledger. Walker explained, "The building just needs to be replaced," and "It's way past its useful life." The new station will offer better amenities, a new firing range, offices for the fire department's administration, etc.

In presentation by the city's building department, the council expressed their support for the new station, but are looking for solutions to keep the cost down. In the breakdown of spending the requested amount of money, $90 million would go straight to the construction of the station. The remainder of the money will go to road, utility and furnishing improvements.

Councilor-at-large, Anne Mahoney said, "I want it to look nice, don't get me wrong, but I want it to be affordable,". Some of the presentation included steep prices of amenities which could be paid for at lower amounts. "There have to be things in this budget where we can have cost contingencies," said Mahoney.

President of the City Council, Nina Liang, also showed skepticism about the overblown costs. Liang said, "I want our first responders to have the best of the best, but on the practical side of things, can we get away with having a $200 microwave of the same quality and lifespan?" after the building team mentioning adding microwaves up to $1000 among other features.

The big idea behind this new station is that it paves the way for a future of electric vehicles in the forces. Chris Walker explained, We are building this facility to be a 50-year building and our expectation is that, in 50 years, the police cruiser fleet could very well be all electric,". Part of the construction would include a two-story parking garage with up to 30 electric vehicle charging stations, with hopes to add more in the future.

Click here For Mayor Koch's funding request.

Click here for City Council's response to Mayor Koch's request.