Blue Springs, Mo. – Completion of the Howard L. Brown Public Safety Building Renovation and Expansion Project is quickly approaching.
On Monday, January 25, Municipal Court, Court Clerk and Records Unit will be closed to the public to allow staff to move from their temporary location in the Municipal Annex building to their permanent location inside the Howard L. Brown Public Safety Building, 1100 SW Smith Street. The Planning Commission Meeting on January 25 will be held in the Municipal Annex building located at 1304 W Main Street at 6:30 p.m.
On Thursday, January 28, the Howard L. Brown Public Safety Building will be open to the public and residents and visitors can access police services, Municipal Court, Court Clerk and Police Records at the newly renovated and expanded facility.
“Renovating and expanding the Howard L. Brown Public Safety Building is a major accomplishment for the Blue Springs community,” said City Administrator Eric Johnson. “It is one of a number of projects completed over the past two years that we hope will create an even more positive experience in Blue Springs for residents, business owners and people visiting our community.”
The Howard L. Brown Public Safety Building offers 72,000 square feet of space including new Council Chambers for public meetings held by City Council, Planning Commission and several Boards and Commissions.
The first City Council Meeting will be held Monday, February 1 at their new meeting time of 6 p.m. The meeting will be recorded and broadcast later on CTV-7. The meeting will be available on Comcast Channel 7, AT&T U-Verse Channel 99 and the City’s YouTube Channel. The first Planning Commission Meeting will be held on Monday, February 8 at 6:30 p.m.
A ribbon cutting ceremony is set for Thursday, February 4 p.m. followed by an Open House from 4-6 p.m.
“The Howard L. Brown Public Safety Building ribbon cutting event is open to all and I encourage every community member to attend,” said Mayor Carson Ross. “This new state-of-the-art facility is a significant step forward for Blue Springs, providing a more customer service-oriented design to better serve residents, visitors and our officers for years to come.”
Police services were temporarily relocated during the renovation to reduce overall costs and speed up the construction process. These services will now be located in the new Howard L. Brown Public Safety Building and include Community & Youth Outreach Unit (CYOU), Municipal Court, Records, Dispatch and other Police staff. Beginning February 2, all Municipal Court proceedings will take place in the Howard L. Brown Public Safety Building.
“We are all excited to be under the same roof again now that the Howard L. Brown Public Safety Building renovations are complete,” said Blue Springs Chief of Police Wayne McCoy. “With the addition of features including the Journagan Family Community Room for public meetings and new Council and Court Chambers, we can more readily meet our growing public safety and community needs.”
In April 2011, voters approved the Public Safety Sales Tax initiative which allocated funds for three focus areas within the Blue Springs Police Department: equipment updates, additional personnel and updates to the Howard L. Brown Public Safety Building. This $23.8 million renovation and expansion project began in mid-2014, and is a LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) sustainability project using high levels of recycled materials and maximizing the building’s sustainability.
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