ROCKLAND — “This is an authorization, at least, not yet a commitment,” said Rockland City Councilor Nate Davis.

City Councilors, absent Councilor Penny York, voted 3-1 (Kalloch) in approval to keep an agenda item on the table authorizing a lease agreement for a new police department space at 12 Water Street. The PD has been dealing with ongoing mold and patchwork maintenance on their current condo space at 1 Park Drive. The City recognizes the personnel and budget concerns, however, disagreement continues on where to relocate the station.

Ordinances in First Reading: #19 Authorizing Design Build Lease agreement (Item sponsor Nate Davis)

An ordinance authorizing a Design-Build Lease Purchase Option Agreement between the City and Rockland Harbor Park LLC on Suite 215, Rockland Harbor Park Center, 12 Water Street, to be used as the new location for the Rockland Police Department. 

Councilor Davis remains in favor of the idea of purchasing a condo space at 12 Water Street, first as the best option out of five previously vetted options. For Davis, the location, near what he sees as the city center, is key.

“I’ve said before,” he said. “It’s important to me that the department be in an easily accessible location to people on foot, to people on bicycles, something that’s very visible to folks just going about their daily business.

Davis alluded to the PD’s efforts toward community policing. And then he asked: Does physical location matter for that, even if it’s a symbolic physical location?

“To me, the answer is yes,” he said. “Given what they are striving to do (towards community policing), and what they have done, and succeeded magnificently in doing in terms of establishing collaborative relationships with partners and members of the community, it’s important to me that the physical location of the police station reflects that, and encourages the type of connection in the community that I encounter when I walk by all sorts of other institutions that I see in the center of Rockland.”

Councilor Nicole Kalloch, opposes the condo option.

“One of the biggest arguments in the fall was that we have a waterfront condo association, and we’re pushing ourselves from one to another,” said Kalloch. “I’ve been in a condo association, they are not always fun. There’s definitely a value in owning all four walls in a building. And I do think this is going to end up costing the City more money over the long term.”

She reminded fellow councilors of an estimated taxable amount of $45,000, stated at a previous meeting, that might come off the City tax roll if a tax-exempt facility uses the space. To the Town Manager, Kalloch asked: What percentage of the condo association are we going to own, when we purchase?

According to Town Manager Tom Luttrell, the condo association piece has not been settled yet. In the lease agreement that’s in the councilor’s packet, it states that if the City opts to purchase, then within a reasonable time, that the City and the building owner would have to devise a condo agreement. Currently, nothing has been put in writing yet as to who owns how much, or what percentage.

That response, for Kalloch, solidified her objection to the 12 Water Street lease agreement.

This agenda item still needs to pass through Second and Final readings.

Reach Sarah Thompson at news@penbaypilot.com