Rice Officials Considering Donated Building As New Police Station

RICE -- The Rice police department may soon have a new headquarters.

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Police Chief Ross Hamann says they have outgrow their current space inside city hall and have started looking at how to best address their needs.

He says conversations picked up in recent months, after the city received a phone call about an available building.

A local business a few months ago expressed interest in donating a small office building to the city to be use as a police department. Our plan would be to move the building over to a couple of lots just to the north of city hall.

Hamann says the building's layout would fit both their current and future needs with multiple offices, a conference room, and reception area. The city is also looking to add a basement and an attach garage.

Hamann says while it's been a process, the city has been supportive form the beginning.

They've been very interested in this whole process and have done a lot of work for us. I'm very grateful to the city staff, council and mayor for really moving forward with this.

Hamann says there are still a few items needing to be finalized before things move forward.

He says the council still needs to enter into an agreement with the property owner, move the building on site and approve formal plans and costs for the project.

The Rice police department currently has two full-time officers and one part-time officer, with plans to add a second.