City to spend $700K to update Lindsborg Safety Center

LINDSBORG, Kan. (KSNW) — The City of Lindsborg is improving its public safety services and plans to spend an estimated $700,000 to update the facility which holds the police, fire, and EMS departments.

The Lindsborg Safety Center is 35 years old. Since being built, no modernizing or large-scale improvements have been made.

With this new project, City leaders expect improved response times, workflow, safety, and security.

Project plans for Lindsborg Safety Center (KSNW Photo)

LLindsborg Police Chief and Director of Public Safety Michael Davis said the dated facility causes issues for each department.

“We don’t have interview rooms, so we either have to interview people out in the lobby or we have to remove officers from workstations to go do interviews which obviously slows down work,” said Chief Davis.

The fire department’s response times are affected because the garage doors don’t always work.

“We’ve had to maneuver the different vehicles from one side to the other and out in order to get the fire trucks out. It just hampered our response times and our ability to serve the community,” said Lindsborg Finance Director and volunteer firefighter David Hay.

The EMS Department’s basement can flood when it rains.

With multiple problems, the City is budgeting to bring updates inside and out.

“It was definitely one of those that from the very beginning, I feel like the City Council, mayor, everybody was 100% on board,” said Hay.

There are plans to add an interview room and a soft interview room for sensitive cases, new workspaces for officers, an evidence preparation and storage room, new locker rooms, a training room, new garage doors, a decontamination area for firefighters, and changes to the EMS building to prevent flooding.

The outside of the building will also be modernized, and the public entrance will be moved to 1st Street.

Chief Davis said keeping the cost around $700,000 over two budget years, taxes won’t increase for residents.

“We want to be able to give them the quality of service both through the police department, the fire department and EMS that they deserve,” said Chief Davis.

The Cty is looking into grants to cover some of the cost. plans to start construction on Nov. 1, with the departments moving to a temporary location in another city building while renovations are being done.

They hope to have updates completed by April 2024.

You can learn more about the project here.