By George Barnes, Worcester Telegram & Gazette Staff
Gardner, Ma. — The police dispatch center is again open for business and will soon be fully renovated, but the mayor is hoping it will be a short stay for both the employees and new equipment.

The center has completed its move back into the front of the police station at 31 City Hall Ave. from temporary quarters in the police administrative offices, and the feel is like leaving a small town and returning to a city. The equipment is in place and a few items such as ceiling tiles and curtains need to be installed before the work is done. But even as the city is modernizing its dispatching services, Mayor Mark P. Hawke said, the city is moving forward with plans to replace the entire building with a modern police station.

“The new dispatch center was built so that everything is easily transferable to a new station,” he said.

Dispatch supervisor Laurie Lyons said that even the floor tiles can be easily removed and transferred to a new place. The city invested about $100,000 in grant money to modernize the dispatch center, and the mayor said the investment will not be lost when a new station is built.

When is the big question, but the city has formed a committee to plan for a new station, including finding a site, come up with a design compatible with the size and needs of the department, and identify how to pay for it.

The mayor said the committee has toured several stations, including in Grafton, Holden and Lunenburg. He said a meeting will be held Aug. 25 to talk with a representative of the architectural firm The McGuire Group, who will explain what is involved if the city opts to operate as its own manager on the project.

The mayor said the police station is 25 years old, but has never been adequate for police needs.

The building was previously used by Stanley Subaru as a dealership and was converted in the mid-1980s as a cheaper alternative to building a new station. The station had been housed for many years in cramped quarters on the first floor of what is now the City Hall annex. He said the department’s modern policing needs have outgrown the current station as well.

“It’s too small. It’s inadequate and it is dangerous for officers,” the mayor said.

Mr. Hawke said the building has security issues that renovations were not able to eliminate, but which would not be a factor in a new station. The mayor said the building also has mold and water problems.

The city has been looking at both city and privately owned property with an eye toward accessibility as well as development costs.

Mr. Hawke said his preference would be a site near downtown, possibly along Main Street.

He said that when the committee was formed, he directed it to look at all kinds of buildings, including a public safety complex that would include a police and fire station and dispatch center.

At this point, he said, a new Fire Department headquarters is not needed. If more firefighters were hired and more space were needed, it would be more likely that a satellite station would be opened in another part of the city.

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