New Highland Public Safety Building Scheduled To Open Week Of November 1

By Stephanie Malench

smalench@timestribunenews.com

After just over a year of construction, the new state of the art Public Safety Building for the City of Highland is scheduled to open the week of November 1.

The new 20,000 square foot building will hold both the police department and a second fire station.

The new building is ADA compliant and evidence storage compliant with additional safeguards for public service employees, those being brought in for investigations, and the surrounding community.

Amenities include indoor parking for all police vehicles, drive through sallies for both fire and EMS vehicles and prisoner drop off, wall tablet based recording in the investigation rooms, adjustable desks so officers can sit or stand to complete reports, laundry facilities in the unisex locker room, exercise room, and a tornado rated shelter.

Separate cages for guns and drugs are at the back of the evidence room and there is a separate room for electronic evidence.

The community room can hold events for up to 40 people and can also double as an incident command center or work area for the major case squad.

Highland employs 20 full time police staff, eight of whom are women, five dispatchers, 18 EMS staff, and approximately 25 volunteer fire fighters.

The residents of Highland are invited to an open house with tours of the new facility located at 12990 Troxler Avenue next to St. Joseph’s Hospital on Sunday, October 31 from 1-4 p.m.

There are no plans for the old police department located at 820 Mulberry St. in Highland except that it will be kept by the city.