BOZEMAN – On Monday, city commissioners hope to approve the bond language to get the $37 million Bozeman Public Safety Facility on the November ballot.
In the new building, city police, fire, and municipal courts would be all under one roof. In the past, both Gallatin County and the City have asked voters to approve funding for safety projects and have gotten shut down.
"This is a different facility than what we’ve had in the past, because it is combing four of our really important, top safety needs into one facility,” said Mayor Cyndy Andrus.
Andrus says as more time passes, the need and expense associated with keeping Bozeman a safe town increases.
"The need that we had years ago, whether it was with the county or on our own continues, and it has probably gotten even more urgent. And as time goes by the cost will increase. So building this now, again we are meeting the needs today as well as into the future, is very important,” said Andrus.
City Manager, Andrea Surratt, said in terms construction, waiting to build can cost about 6% in inflation. Surratt states some of Bozeman’s safety facilities such as Fire Station #1 and the Law & Justice Center are no longer fit to serve the public.
"We want our first responders to be in a facility that allows them to respond in a crisis and we don’t want their facility to be part of a situation that is an emergency situation. So we need to make sure those facilities meet that standard for building code,” said Surratt.
An example Surratt gave to visualize the need was the boiler room in the basement of Fire Station #1. The boiler is over fifty years old and parts cannot be replaced. That means once it shuts down the building will have to run solely on a generator.
If approved by voters, construction for the Public Safety would be paid for by taxpayers over the next 20 years. The average homeowner would pay around $121 for the first year.
