By Mindy Ragan Wood
Staff Writer
The Okarche police department’s waiting game for a new station is finally coming to a foreseeable close.
Town Administrator Richard Raupe said the contractor will finish the concrete driveway by Friday and should be ready for officers to move in within a couple of weeks.
The building was converted from a house to a new station near the corner of Colorado Ave. and State Highway 81.
“Everybody is excited and ready to get in their new home and have room to move around and have a place to call their own,” Police Chief Forrest Smith said. “Something like that keeps morale boosted and the community has been really receptive to our goals and what we’re doing.”
Smith said the department has an open-door policy but once they are fully operational they hope to host an open house for the community.
Police officers can look forward to a new station and new logos for their vehicles.
“Everyone thought we got new police cars,” Raupe said, “but we just took off the logos on them because they were peeling and weren’t very good. We’re getting new logos in.”
The police department is not the only group of first responders who will enjoy more room.
The fire department will take up the space the police leave empty. A new fire truck was delivered two weeks ago, but it was not known at press time how the additional space will be used.
The new station was supposed to be finished last March, but repeated delays continued throughout the year.
Raupe said the roof was the biggest delay as the contractor, C4L of Edmond, subcontracted the roof multiple times.
“The original (subcontractor) pulled off the job because he had a bigger job and it was subcontracted two times which delayed the project,” Raupe said. “It wasn’t done very well and the architect didn’t approve it and had to be redone.”
Disagreements between the architect and the contractor centered on materials the architect did not approve.
“It was just a constant battle between the contractor who wanted to substitute lesser quality material and the architect wouldn’t let him because it was required in the bid,” he said.
The contractor could have to pay a fine of $250 per day of assessed damages. The final tally has not been determined.
