Dewey hammers out details for new town hall

After lengthy discussions Jan. 31, Dewey Beach commissioners choose Costello Construction as its potential contractor for both phases of its public safety and town hall facility project. 

Costello’s base bid came in at $11.08 million, though council aims to cut the cost as much as possible by implementing several alternate project deductions. Much of the meeting dialogue was centered around cost reduction.

“All of us were relatively floored in terms of how the bids came in, with the lowest bid at $11 million and the highest over $13 million,” said Mayor Bill Stevens. “I was expecting $9 million. But the fact of the matter is that we’ve been asked to be the stewards of this town and to take care not only of providing protection and services, but also to make sure that we’re not wrongfully spending in any way, shape or form.”

The project will be funded through grants, including the state’s Bond Bill, and other county and state funding sources.

“We haven’t asked the public for a dime, and we’re not going to,” Commissioner Paul Bauer and Mayor Stevens emphasized. 

The town does not have a property tax, so while the town may accept resident donations from those who wish to help, there won’t be any mandatory taxes or fees.

Council’s decision to select Costello is pending, as the two sides work to meet a mutually agreed-upon deadline by which town officials must decide whether they still wish to proceed with the second phase of the project. Incorporating such a deadline would ensure the town has the freedom to back out of the second phase if necessary, while also allowing sufficient lead time and notice for Costello, in case the town does back out, to avoid incurring any unnecessary costs.

If Costello does not agree to adding those contract terms, or if the town cannot gather the necessary funds to pay the bid cost after the alternate deductions, then it’s back to the drawing board and the bidding process will restart. The town plans to go through with the project.

“I have sticker shock like the rest of us, but … If we don’t have good public safety, our property values don’t go up,” Bauer said.

According to Dewey Business Partnership president and Starboard owner Steve Montgomery, he and many other Dewey business owners are in full support of town council’s handling of the project.

“How big the town hall should be, I have no idea, but I do know how terrible the current town hall is,” Montgomery said. “My two cents is that we support whatever you all think we need.”

The current police facility, which shares a building with the town hall, does not meet state or national accreditation standards, and poses a slew of safety concerns. 

A 2019 organizational analysis report described the facility as woefully inadequate, citing design flaws and a lack of space to safely operate, as well as air-quality issues due to growing mold.

By law, the department must maintain separation of sight and sound between male, female and juvenile detainees, but the building has only one holding cell: a 12-by-8-foot room with handcuffs cuffed to a chipping wooden bench and a metal bar above it, with a small toilet and sink on one side.

If, for example, a male detainee is being held in the cell, and a juvenile detainee is brought in, then the officers must take him or her outside and up a steep set of stairs – which Chief Constance Speake said is very challenging when suspects are intoxicated – to the second floor of the building, where they’re kept on a bench in the same room as the officers’ desks. There, they can see officers’ computer screens and hear everything they’re saying.

In the summer, the police department gets especially cramped, Speake said, often with 40 or so people – including full-time and seasonal officers, fire marshals and other agency employees – trying to eat, use the bathrooms and confer. They often have to confer in the parking lot because of the lack of space inside.

The building design also poses major security risks, lacking the proper mechanisms to handle suspects who escape or get loose inside the building.

The first floor is divided in half, with the town hall on one side and the police department on the other, separated by bathrooms in the middle that are shared by both groups. A single deadbolt lock on the outside of each bathroom door on the town hall side is the only thing keeping a suspect from getting through and gaining access to the town hall offices.

“Let’s say a prisoner gets into a fight or something happens, an officer is going to process him and he gets loose,” Speake said. “He can run down to where my assistant is, or the dispatchers who are not armed, and he can go in there and attack somebody.”

The new facility, which will be a three-story, Risk Category IV structure about four times the size of the current 6,000-square-foot building, will solve many of the existing safety issues, bringing the facility up to industry standards. While it will be a much-needed upgrade, it will have no frills, said Town Manager Bill Zolper.

“There are no big stairways or glass sides of the building like we see in some of the town halls that are around us,” Zolper said. “This is a very spartan building. It just gets the job done. [But] it does have some room if we need to expand up into the attic.” 

The building will have at least three holding cells to account for the male, female and juvenile suspect separation, along with a police garage and a secure entrance called a sally port to hold overflow or nonviolent offenders.

It will also house an EMS and paramedic station, the alderman’s court, parking enforcement, town employee and administrative offices, in addition to a large commissioners/multipurpose meeting room.

The council is set to hold a meeting with Costello Construction to discuss the project and contract terms in more detail at 5 p.m., Friday, Feb. 14, at the Dewey Beach Lifesaving Station.