Public safety building moves nearer reality
Published 12:00 am Friday, June 18, 2004
DEMOPOLIS-The Demopolis Public Safety Complex takes one more step to becoming a reality, as the floor plans were unveiled Thursday.
Tarlee Brown, who is the owner of Brown Design and architect Dwight Thomas showed off the new plans for the Demopolis Public Safety Complex to group of Demopolis officials including Mayor Austin Caldwell, and City Clerk Vickie Taylor and Emergency Service personnel including Demopolis Public Safety Director and Police Chief Jeff Manuel, Fire Chief George Davenport, and Detective Tim Soronen.
Brown presented layouts for each section of the new complex including the Police Department, Fire Department, and the courtroom. After Brown went over the new sections, Thomas talked about each section and the plans accordingly.
“The city asked for a survey of the building and this is what we found,” Brown said, “The floor elevation and the ground elevation are way to high for some of the plans that were sent to us.”
Thomas said, after they discovered the elevation was wrong, they changed the plans to better suit the overall all workability of the complex. He also said the place were the Fire Department was going to be located would have been the absolute worst place for it, so he moved it to the right corner of the plans.
“There is still time that any changes that are requested here can be made to the final layout plans,” Thomas said.
He said there would be two bays that could accommodate three trucks including the EMS truck, a fire engine and the ladder truck. Chief Davenport suggested a sink be placed in the bay, so they could wash their gear off after returning from a fire.
After the Fire Department plan, they moved to the Police Department’s plan. Thomas said this plan is about identical to the original plans that were sent to the company. He said the plans represented a more spacious Police Department with many new features that the current station doesn’t have.
“We will go and make these changes that were discussed today, knowing that the Fire Department is the first priority for the city,” Thomas said.