The Bel Air Town Commission recently approved a $5 million renovation of its town hall and policestation, despite Mayor Terence Hanley?s concerns about future tax increases.
Commissioners voted 4-1 to renovate the building constructed in 1964, citing a 1,500-page study by an independent engineering firm that found several issues, mostly with the police station, which does not have separate holding areas for juvenile and adult offenders, Commissioner David Carey said.
The building houses the police station downstairs and the town hall above. The cost of the renovations amounts to more than a third of the town?s annual budget, although most of the money will be borrowed.
The town is still paying for renovations from the late 1980s, Hanley said.
He said he?d rather spend the money hiring more police officers than renovating the station, because officers told him in the past their take-home police cars are where they spend most of their time, and the town has access to the county?s detention center.
Hanley also said several residents have expressed concern to him, but when he brought up sending the issue to a voter referendum so residents can decide, he was “basically chastised … by [his] fellow commissioners.”
Projects like expanding Rockfield Manor and putting a park next to the Bel Air Armory will have to be nixed due to the renovation, Hanley said.
But Carey sees those projects as minor compared to police facilities.
“I see this as taking care of the core functions of government,” he said. “I think [Hanley] is trying to make headlines for his next political move.”
Carey said the town has grown so much since 1964 that renovations are justified. The lack of space forces the finance director to have meetings in the building?s kitchen, he said.
“I just sometimes find that government is growing way too fast,” Hanley said. “It?s not about the building; it?s about the services provided.”
