Published: December 09, 2008 11:06 pm         

Edmond residents react to Public Safety Center plan

EDMOND — Edmond Police Chief Bob Ricks spoke before the Edmond City Council Monday night to dispel rumors that the proposed Public Safety Center will be a prison to house hardened criminals.

City Councilman David Miller told The Edmond Sun that he had received an e-mail this week from Aaron Heeg, pastor of Christ Covenant Community Church, who expressed concern the PSC would harbor dangerous elements to the community.

This facility would bring together the Edmond Police Department, the Central Communications Department and the Emergency Management Department in one building.

“Our intention is never to run a full-time jail facility,” Ricks said. “We have no desire to get in the jail business or prison business. We have a 10-day holding facility, which is the maximum time.”

All felons are transported to the Oklahoma County Jail, Ricks said. His comments came Monday night before a heated discussion between the City Council members and the Chitwood Neighborhood Alliance, a group opposed to the safety center being built at Barnett Field on Kelly and Main Street.

“We hold people generally in the hours, not in the days,” Ricks said. “We’ve had people that have been there a few days over a weekend as a general rule. But it’s not a place you would have comings and goings you would have in a normal prison-type setting. ... We don’t have (that) now and we don’t want to have it in the future.”

The City Council decided Monday night not to call for a special election on Feb. 10 for the proposed PSC. Discussion involved whether to fund the proposed PSC with a 1/2-cent sales tax. But council members decided more discussion with the community is needed to evaluate the size, location and cost of the center.

Today’s downtown police station’s 22,000-square-foot design is obsolete for a burgeoning city of 75,000 residents, according to a 2005 needs assessment study.

Voters defeated the $31.5 million price tag for a proposed 83,000-square-foot center on the Nov. 4 ballot. A poll conducted by the city determined that voters were mainly opposed to the council’s plan to use a property tax to fund the project.

A packed house at the City Council meeting Monday night wasn’t short on voices against the building’s proposed location.

Bob Helie, chairman of the Chitwood Neighborhood Coalition, said he’s encouraged that the council members will further study the proposal. Barnett Field is not “decrepit and run down” as presented in a previous public forum by the city, he said.

Municipalities should not violate the sanctity of neighborhoods, Helie said. Confidence in Edmond’s elected servants would be seriously eroded if Barnett Field remains in future plans to develop the PSC, he added.

“I live nearby and the YMCA does a better job of keeping up the appearance of that park than the City of Edmond does across the street,” Helie said. “In addition, the argument that the park is free does not fly with us, nor would it if you chose to take a park from any other neighborhood.”

Edmond architect David Hornbeek said he supports a new Police Department building but is opposed to moving it from downtown. The city has a fiduciary responsibility to encourage downtown development, said Hornbeek, who owns property downtown.

Mayor Dan O’Neil said he would have loved to find a suitable place for the center to be built downtown. The council thoroughly studied downtown for building the facility before choosing the Barnett Field location last summer, O’Neil said.

“We had actually considered one location where they had enough space ... ” O’Neil said. “But we could not charm all of the folks to leave and I wasn’t about to evict people who had owned their home for a long time in order for us to have a Public Safety Center downtown.”

This site would have cost more than $1 million an acre, O’Neil said. It would have involved eminent domain.

Hornbeek said tough decisions need to be made. He cited that Oklahoma State University used eminent domain to accelerate the construction of an athletic village.

“The State of Oklahoma used eminent domain just to find the land to facilitate the Oklahoma History Center,” Hornbeek said. “We’re talking about something that has to do with our Police Department and our security.

“If there’s ever a point where eminent domain needs to be considered as a last resort — I can’t see that it comes any stronger than this,” Hornbeek said.

O’Neil said the City Council didn’t want to evict a homeowner from her property of 27 years.

“Dan, you’re the mayor. It’s time to make some tough decisions,” Hornbeek said.

Carol Morales and her family live on Main Street near Barnett Field. Children’s safety due to increasing traffic would be at greater risk if the center is placed in her neighborhood, she said. O’Neil said there may be traffic flow solutions in the area if Barnett Field remains the City Council’s choice for the proposed building.

Heeg said he has reflected on his concerns about placing the center inside the Chitwood neighborhood.

“It goes back one week prior to the Nov. 4 election, when I approached the mayor inside of Java Dave’s with some concerns that I had concerning comments he had made on public television concerning some of the neighbors inside that community,” he said.

Heeg said he was concerned with the phrases O’Neil used with regard to the neighborhood.

“Mayor, you then proceeded to make another foul comment using the phrase ‘B.S.’ but you actually said the word to me in a public place, with a loud voice, that Chitwood Park was not even a neighborhood,” Heeg said. “What concerned me about that mayor, was this: You’re our mayor and you have a limited scope in your understanding concerning (the) neighborhood.”

O’Neil told The Sun Tuesday that he’s had conversations with Heeg and is willing to meet with Chitwood area neighbors to discuss issues concerning the project.

“This particular issue has divided us and I’m sorry for that,” O’Neil said of Heeg. “Everything we can do to protect neighborhoods, the city will do.”

Heeg said at the council meeting that he is even more perplexed with Councilman Wayne Page’s lack of attention to the Chitwood neighborhood.

“You sit as the overseer, politically, of the civic issues inside our neighborhood,” he said to Page, “and yet you proclaim that you advocate neighborhood safety and development. And yet you’re advocating for a monstrosity, a piece of concrete, 80,000 square foot, to sit on the western perimeter of an addition ….”

He asked Page to listen to the needs of Chitwood property owners regarding the proposed building. Page said that he’s met three times with some of the Chitwood residents. Page also met with Heeg, he said.

Former Edmond Police officer Les Little has lived in the Chitwood neighborhood for five years. He raised five children in the neighborhood and played ball with them at Barnett Field.

“It’s something that stresses me that it might be taken away from other families,” he said.

Little said the city needs a Public Safety Center, but urged the council to consider purchasing land at the northwest corner of Edmond Road and Kelly that is for sale.

“I appreciate the opportunity for public discussion for people in this neighborhood,” Little said.



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