Duane Hicks
Slowly but surely, the process to get a new OPP detachment headquarters built here keeps moving along.
During a Police Services Board meeting this morning, new detachment commander Insp. Nathan Schmidt said he will attend a meeting in Orillia on Feb. 21-22 to provide input as to what is needed in a new building here.
“This will be the final meeting that the detachment commanders can be involved with,” he noted.
“It’s our last say.”
Since he’s been in Fort Frances, Insp. Schmidt has realized that because the local detachment has between 800 and 1,000 lockups a year, it is spending close to $10,000 a year just washing blankets from holding cells.
But the current plans for the new building doesn’t include a washer and dryer.
“So we’re suggesting that, if we invest in addressing that issue and putting in a large washer and dryer, organizationally we can save a lot of money,” Insp. Schmidt explained.
“We’ve done this in our other detachments, like Kenora and in Sioux Lookout,” he noted.
“Some of our ones that have a lot of lockups.
“In smaller locations, it doesn’t pay,” he conceded. “But certainly when you’re talking this kind of money that you’re starting to put out just on cleaning blankets, it’s well worth the investment.”
There’s no clear timeline, meanwhile, as to when construction will begin on the open property between Flinders Place and the sewage treatment plant in the west end of town.
PSB chair John McTaggart said he has talked to OPP Chief Superintendent Dave Lucas and encouraged him to keep trying to advance the process.
News of the OPP office here being one of nine new detachments to be built across the province first was reported back in October, 2016.
