Staff Writer

 The Old Orchard Beach Police Department this week moved into the first new municipal building in town since the previous police station opened in 1975.

Deputy Police Chief Keith Babin said department staff is excited to make its new home in a building nearly three times the size of the station it outgrew as soon as it moved in. The old station, in the public safety building at the corner of Saco Avenue and E. Emerson Cummings Boulevard, was cramped and outdated, he said.

The new 10,000 square-foot building is located next to the Ballpark entrance on E. Emerson Cummings Boulevard. The building was completed for less than the $2.5 million voters approved for the project.

Police Chief Dana Kelley said more space and new technology will allow the department to offer better customer service to the town. Each officer will have individual work space with  computer and telephone, instead of sharing two computers as they did in the old station.

In the old station, a second-floor room was used for meetings, roll call, interviews and breaks. Babin said officers were unable to provide victims a private place to be interviewed.

“We’d do everything in that room,” Babin said.

Interview rooms at the new station include video and audio recording.

The new station also includes a break room, fitness center, increased storage for files and an armory for firearms storage and maintenance. The guns previously were stored in a gun cabinet.

The station also includes an evidence room where police will be able to process more evidence. Lockers rooms will allow officers more space to store their equipment, Babin said.

“There is so much space for officers in here,” Babin said as he walked through a locker room last week. “Right now they have nothing.”

A community meeting room can hold up to 50 people and is secure from the rest of the building. Kelley said the room is equipped with video recording so public meetings can be held in the space. Babin said the room also will allow the department to host more officer training sessions.

“We’re real happy with this room because it’s something we’ve needed from day one,” Kelley said.

Babin said the detention area is a “major improvement” over the previous station. Three holding cells now are in compliance with Department of Corrections standards. The building also is handicap accessible.

Babin said the entire building is more secure than the previous department. Key cards will be used to open doors between different areas in the building and a separate entrance will be used by people who come to bail out prisoners, he said.

Kelley, who has been with the department since before it moved into the old station in 1975, said last week he was looking forward to moving into his new office. His office used to be dubbed “the bunker,” but department staff now call it “the West Wing” because of its location in the building, he said.

Kelley said he is impressed with what the town got for its investment in the new station.

“Hopefully this will last a good long time. This facility is adequate enough it should last this community a good 25 or 30 years,” he said. “It’s just going to be so much easier to have a place where you can do your job and do it well.”

Staff Writer Gillian Graham can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 213.