The Ocean View Police Department presented plans for a new police station to replace the small, aging facility it works out of now on Oakland Avenue.

Speaking at the April 19, 2004 workshop of the Ocean View Town Council, Police Chief Kenneth M. McLaughlin and council member Bill Wichmann presented plans for a two-story, 15,000 square foot facility on Central Avenue just north of Bear Trap.

After hearing the plans, council voted unanimously to move forward with requesting bids for the building's construction.

The building would provide space for the existing 8-member force plus an additional unused 25 percent for future expansion. The estimated cost of the structure is $1.5 million, which the council budgeted for during four months of long-range financial planning that ended in March 2004.

Chief McLaughlin and Councilman Wichmann told council that the new building would provide for safe processing of suspects, who now are held in a holding chair in the middle of the current building.

The new building would have separate cells for male, female and juvenile suspects, an intoxilizer room, a scanner room, and a room with a video phone for processing suspects without driving to court in Georgetown.

Also downstairs would be offices for the chief, a secretary, a sargeant, a detective and a superintendent, a reception area, a 22x24 garage, evidence rooms, a squad room and break room, an interview room, and a victim's services room.

On the second floor would be a workout room, men's and women's locker rooms, a room for the police auxiliary unit approved by council, and the building's mechanical equipment such as heating and air conditioning.

The plans were drawn up by architect Jon Fellgraff.