HUBBARD Police to get new facility

The new station will be built about a block north of the current headquarters.
HUBBARD -- The city will break ground this spring for a new police station.
Mayor Arthur U. Magee says he is wasting no time getting plans together to build the new facility.
"We are starting today," the mayor said eagerly. "We have to do environmental tests and that sort of stuff, but I am hoping to have a groundbreaking in May."
Council voted 4-3 Monday to buy property on School Street to build the new safety services facility. The land will be purchased from Bruce Knupp for about $55,000, city officials said.
The new facility will be about a block north of the current building, Magee stated.
The three voting against the motion disagreed with the location of the new facility.
"I want our police to have a new building, they need it," said Bonita Viele, 1st Ward, who voted against the measure. "I just think the station should have remained on the square. Visibility is very important."
Dissent on location
Viele said she and others thought the old building should be torn down and a new one constructed on that land.
"It's now going to be close to an elementary school, and I just think it should have stayed on the square," she said.
However, Magee and Viele both agree police officers need the new facility soon.
Mold had been found in the building, resulting in the wet basement's being sealed and seven grievances filed by police officers, claiming health problems.
In addition, an inspection found that the building, constructed in 1870, has electrical deficiencies.
The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections inspected the city jail in September and said the facility should house only four inmates at a time. The jail had been approved to house five.
The fire marshal's Code Enforcement Bureau inspection conducted Aug. 6 found no fire alarm system in the jail. The jail area also lacks lighted exit signs.
Magee said the money to build the new facility will come from a 0.5 percent increase in city income tax approved by voters Nov. 2.
Increasing the tax from 1 percent to 1.5 percent will generate about $950,000 annually, the mayor said.