30 Mar ESSEX COUNTY EXECUTIVE DIVINCENZO AND ESSEX COUNTY SHERIFF FONTOURA ANNOUNCE PLANS FOR NEW PATROL HEADQUARTERS 8,000-Square-Foot Building will Provide Modern and Efficient Accommodations for County Police Patrol Operations
Published on March 30, 2017
Newark, NJ – Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr. was joined by Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura on Thursday, March 30th to outline plans to construct a new Patrol Headquarters. The building will provide officers in the Sheriff’s Patrol Division with modern accommodations and will contribute to more efficient policing operations.
“The County Police have been operating from the Parks Administration Building since it opened over 100 years ago. With all the expanded duties and additional demands that have been placed on the police force through the decades, the Patrol Division has simply outgrown its outdated quarters,” DiVincenzo said. “We want to make sure our Sheriff’s Officers have the proper resources to help keep us safe, and this new facility will provide modern accommodations and efficient room to operate,” he added.
“This new and strategically located Patrol Division Headquarters will further propel our entire department into 21st century community policing,” Fontoura stated. “Mayor Baraka and the Newark City Council are excited, as we are, that our great city’s West Ward will now have a centrally located precinct that will be fully staffed by our Patrol Division Detective Bureau and our county-wide Traffic Bureau, and fully equipped with all the most modern public safety and crime prevention tools,” he noted.
Elected officials at the groundbreaking ceremony were supportive of the project.
“This will be great for the neighborhood because of the increased police presence and the way the building is integrated into the community. The County Executive always has visions to improve Essex and it’s a pleasure to see them manifested,” Freeholder President Britnee Timberlake said. “The corridor is the gateway to Newark and the Downtown area and it’s important that it looks good. With the school and the Sheriff’s building, I see this area beginning to boom and improve,” Freeholder Rufus Johnson said. Also attending were Freeholders Patricia Sebold and Len Luciano.
“The County Executive is the best at what he does. When he envisions something, he makes it happen. This will go a long way to secure the neighborhood,” Newark West Ward Councilman Joe McCallum said. Also attending were Newark Councilmen Anibal Ramos and Carlos Quintana.
“Community policing is about bringing the police closer to the residents, and this new building for the Sheriff’s Office will be a great thing for the neighborhood,” Newark Director of Public Safety Anthony Ambrose said.
Assemblyman Thomas Giblin said he remembered when there were more police precincts throughout the City of Newark. “This is important to the community and will help bring it back,” he added.
The Sheriff’s Patrol Headquarters will be located on the corner of Market Street and Myrtle Avenue in Newark’s West Ward, and will be across the street from the Essex County Donald M. Payne Vocational Technical School that currently is under construction. The one-story, 8,000-square-foot building will be a fully functioning police station with holding cells, locker rooms for officers, a roll call area for officers to gather at the start of their shifts, expanded storage areas for records, evidence and equipment, conference room and offices.
The Patrol Division offices have been located in the Parks Administration Building at 115 Clifton Avenue in Newark since the building opened in 1916. The division occupies part of the first floor and basement, and the cramped conditions are not conducive to efficient operations.
Comito Associates from Newark received a $177,500 contract to design the Sheriff’s Patrol Headquarters. Aps Contracting from Paterson was awarded a publicly bid contract for $3,585,285 to construct the building. The Essex County Department of Public Works will oversee the project to ensure it is completed according to schedule. Funding for the building is being provided through the Essex County Capital Budget. It is scheduled to be completed in January 2018.
Essex County purchased one residential lot on Myrtle Avenue at market rate and acquired other vacant lots from the City of Newark to make the footprint of the new police facility. The home on Myrtle Avenue was demolished earlier in March.