It’s moving day for Ocean City Police Department

Ocean City’s Police Department said a final goodbye Friday to the 1800s-era building on Central Avenue that had served as its headquarters for decades.

Just 15 minutes later, the department moved four blocks away into a new $6.1 million police substation overlooking the Boardwalk at Eighth Street.

The department’s final “roll call” was held in the old public safety building at 6:45 a.m. The very first roll call in the new substation followed at 7 a.m.

There was no ribbon-cutting ceremony and very little fanfare of any kind to celebrate the grand opening of the substation. The move was low-key and businesslike.

“Out with the old and in with the new,” Police Chief Bill Campbell said matter-of-factly.

Mayor Jay Gillian and Campbell were joined by former Ocean City police chiefs Jay Prettyman and Chad Callahan, current officers and some of the department’s retirees for the final roll call at the old building.

The city plans to demolish the old building, which dates to 1884 and originally served as a school before it was transformed into the police headquarters decades ago.

Campbell said the old building is largely empty now and there are no plans by the police department to use it anymore.

“By and large, what’s there now will come down with the building,” he said.

    The front entrance of the new $6.1 million police substation overlooks the Ocean City Boardwalk at Eighth Street.
  

In its place, the city will build a new public safety building for the police department and municipal court on the same spot at 835 Central Ave.

“The building that houses our Ocean City Police Department dates back to the 1800s, and for far longer than most of us can remember, the city has been planning – and re-planning – to provide our officers with the modern facilities they need to keep our community safe,” Gillian said of plans for the new headquarters.

Demolition of the old building is expected to happen later in March or in April. The site will serve as a temporary parking lot over the summer. Gillian said he wants construction to begin shortly after the summer tourism season.

“I’m hoping by September we’re putting pilings in,” he said in an interview with OCNJDaily.com.

The cost of the new building and how long it will take to build will become clearer after the city completes the designs over the summer.

The city had a budget of $30 million for the project and has been drawing down on the money to pay for related expenses, Gillian said. He expects the final construction cost to be in the $25 million range.

“We have a budget. We were up to $30 million, but we’ve used it for some of the things. I’m hoping $23, $24, $25 million, done deal. We definitely scaled back a lot. We already approved the $30 million, so it was not going to be more. We used some money to put our temporary facilities up. It’s not going to be any more money,” he said in the interview.

    The old public safety building dating to the late-1800s awaits demolition.
  

The new building is expected to serve as a modern headquarters for the police department, but the designs will be “nothing special,” Gillian noted.

“The team, the police officers and everybody got together. It’s what we need. Nothing special. It’s about time,” he said.

In the meantime, the new substation will serve as a base for Boardwalk and citywide police operations and as a temporary home for the department while the existing station is replaced by a new facility.

The two-story substation features a contemporary, seashore-style design consisting of four columns at the front entrance, a muted white-and gray color scheme, red-brick accents and even outdoor balconies on the second floor.

Gillian said that once the new police headquarters is completed, it will serve as the department’s operations hub. The substation will continue to play an important role by housing the department’s community policing and traffic safety units.

“There’s going to be a lot of things that are going to stay there, so it won’t be just a temporary or a seasonal facility. It will be used year-round,” he said of the substation.

Gillian thanked Campbell, Prettyman and Callahan, as well as the department’s other officers, for their patience and assistance in developing and executing the ideas and designs for the new substation and the future police headquarters.

“This administration has succeeded in addressing long-overdue infrastructure improvements across all parts of the city, and this is one of the last major projects necessary before we can move into a maintenance mode.” Gillian said in a public statement about the plans for the new police headquarters.

    The exterior of the new police substation features a contemporary, seashore-style design.