OVIEDO, Fla. — In 2016, Oviedo residents passed a $11.4 million referendum to build a new police station, but it was never built.
“But as soon as the bond was approved, it was quickly determined that was not going to be enough money for a greatly smaller building that would have barely met the needs at the time,” Oviedo Police Chief Dale Coleman said. “... And what happened was the decision was made well, we can’t move forward if we don’t have the money to do it, to build it.”
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The bond was never issued and Coleman said residents have not been paying for it. Now, the city is asking property owners to approve a $35.5 million referendum on Nov. 7 to build a much larger police station. It would be added to the 2016 bond referendum that was already approved for a total cost of nearly $47 million.
Property owners would see a 14.2 percent increase in their property taxes if approved Tuesday.
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“This time, we believe that we’ve done our due diligence in order to allocate enough funds to do it. But if it costs less than that, we just want to issue that much,” Coleman said.
If the cost is less, the bonds will not be issued for the full amount.
The city of Oviedo put a link on their website to give residents a way to determine how much more they will end up paying if passed. You can access the link here.
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On Thursday, the city held a public forum on the referendum at city hall for residents to get questions answered. People were also able to get a chance to tour the current police station and see the condition it is in. Eyewitness News got an exclusive tour of the police station before the forum.
“And you can see the stains in the floor there, from the water intrusion from outside,” says Deputy Chief Michael Beavers, who was our tour guide.
“It’s amazing how much stuff you have to store you know, when you think about it, you know, uniforms, bullets, test kits, whatever. And that’s one of the things we’re lacking is storage,” Beavers said.
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Besides storage, Eyewitness News observed mold in areas as well as crowded workstations and a building, which was originally the city’s fire station, that has seen better days.
“So this obviously is the old fire department base. Like we, we call it our rolling asset storage. We also use it as a training facility,” Beavers said.
Coleman said his department continues growing and he would like to add virtual reality training, but they need more room. Right now, his officers either have to go outside where they run the risk of exposing their tactics or they use a cramped room.
“We’re looking at trying to continue to do continuously to do this job and to serve the community the best we can, but we need some space to do it,” Coleman said.
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