Kent Police have to wait longer than expected for new station

The Kent Police Department is scheduled to receive its new building in spring 2017, although prior estimate was 2016. The City of Kent’s Public Service Department is heading the project with a team of design and engineering workers in an effort to achieve a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for the new police station.

Eugene Roberts, Director of Public Service, is part of the team to bring in a new, environmentally friendly police building. Originally the building was supposed to be a 12-month design project, but it’s being pushed back due to the long process of acquiring the necessary LEED certification. All new Kent City Municipal buildings require a LEED certification after Kent City Council made it a requirement on new government buildings a couple of years ago.

“When LEED certification first started it wasn’t strict, but now certification documents call for different steps to operate a LEED certified building,” said Roberts. “All new government buildings must have a certification that requires a team effort of designers, engineers and contractors.” Every detail is carefully checked in designing this type of building, thus contributing to the delay.

Sustainability is the main focus of the project. Sustainability simply means using natural resources and making them last a long time. These methods are being used in gathering the lumber needed for the police building. Roberts says that the wood must come from a forest that is replanted with trees after being used.

“This makes the project sustainable and gives us new trees 20 years from now.”

Kent City Manager David Ruller said on his blog that the LEED certification was viewed as the “Good Housekeeping” seal of approval for energy efficiency and the city policy was a way to publicly demonstrate the city’s commitment to sustainable building design and performance; however, Ruller raised the question that LEED certificates are becoming “little more than an expensive piece of paper.”

It’s going to cost between $50,000 to $75,000 in paperwork to get the certification. Ruller asks the question that it might be more beneficial to use that money to fund the building itself.

What is a LEED certification? 

The goal of LEED certified buildings is to save money, resources and promote clean energy.

According to the U.S. Green Building Council website, LEED is a green building certification program that recognizes best-in-class building strategies and practices based on a rating system that groups together requirements that address the needs of the building. Each rating system is made up of a combination of credit categories that apply to the type of project being built. The project must satisfy prerequisites and earn points to achieve different levels of certification.

The current police building is old and literally falling apart. The department has worries that some areas of the building’s floor are in danger of caving in, and these are just an example of the many issues with the current station.

The need for a new police station is urgent, but for now it looks as if the wait will be longer than expected.