New Public Safety Building Campaign
Donation protected
As you may or may not be aware, the Town of Scarborough is in the process of seeking approval for a new Public Safety Building. The 13-member Building Committee has been diligently working on this project since November 2016 and in July their final design and cost estimates were submitted to the Scarborough Town Council. It is hoped that their seal of approval will be given and the project can then be put before the Town voters on the November ballot.
Given the fact that the current Public Safety Building is in dire need of repair and is very overcrowded there is a real need for a new building. The proposed new facility is planned to be built on the town owned property adjacent to the Town Hall.
The current building was occupied initially by the Fire Department. In 1968 the Police Department moved in from town hall. In 1989 an addition was built at the rear to accommodate a growing Police Department. Since then programs and staffing has increased dramatically with the increase in the population of the Town coupled with new programs and activities such as the live-in student program, Operation HOPE, cybercrime and video forensics, none of which existed back in 1989. The department did not have a safety and compliance officer, a school resource officer, community resource officer or records clerk.
This organization, Friends of Scarborough Public Safety, a non-profit group of individuals established to support and advocate for the new Public Safety Building, is embarking on a program of education ahead of the vote in November to ensure the voters have all the facts to make an informed decision. The plan is to use a combination of social media, email, news print and regular mail to achieve this. We have already started the process and have an active Facebook page with over 70 followers after a few weeks of existence.
We now need to ramp up our outreach efforts and in order to do so we are seeking donations and support for this project. It is important to keep a clear distinction between the town’s staff work on planning and design and advocacy for the project. That is why this group was formed to assure all advocacy costs for printings and public outreach efforts were funded completely separate from municipal government.
If you or your organization is willing to support this effort we would appreciate a donation. Funds not used in direct support of the advocacy efforts will be saved in a reserve account to fund a Public Safety Memorial at the new building funded by private donations.
Mike Stephenson, President Friends of Scarborough Public Safety
Given the fact that the current Public Safety Building is in dire need of repair and is very overcrowded there is a real need for a new building. The proposed new facility is planned to be built on the town owned property adjacent to the Town Hall.
The current building was occupied initially by the Fire Department. In 1968 the Police Department moved in from town hall. In 1989 an addition was built at the rear to accommodate a growing Police Department. Since then programs and staffing has increased dramatically with the increase in the population of the Town coupled with new programs and activities such as the live-in student program, Operation HOPE, cybercrime and video forensics, none of which existed back in 1989. The department did not have a safety and compliance officer, a school resource officer, community resource officer or records clerk.
This organization, Friends of Scarborough Public Safety, a non-profit group of individuals established to support and advocate for the new Public Safety Building, is embarking on a program of education ahead of the vote in November to ensure the voters have all the facts to make an informed decision. The plan is to use a combination of social media, email, news print and regular mail to achieve this. We have already started the process and have an active Facebook page with over 70 followers after a few weeks of existence.
We now need to ramp up our outreach efforts and in order to do so we are seeking donations and support for this project. It is important to keep a clear distinction between the town’s staff work on planning and design and advocacy for the project. That is why this group was formed to assure all advocacy costs for printings and public outreach efforts were funded completely separate from municipal government.
If you or your organization is willing to support this effort we would appreciate a donation. Funds not used in direct support of the advocacy efforts will be saved in a reserve account to fund a Public Safety Memorial at the new building funded by private donations.
Mike Stephenson, President Friends of Scarborough Public Safety
Organizer
JULIE SANFORD
Organizer
Scarborough, ME
