Sun and clouds mixed. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 87F. Winds light and variable..
Mostly cloudy skies early with scattered thunderstorms developing late. Low 72F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
The rear exterior of the main building shows some of the additions made to the structure since its 1954 origins.
The eight holding cells at NADPS have been decommissioned and are used now for storage.
Lt. Kevin Hayes explains how the breathalyzer test works. The Data Master room is the only basement space still in use at the existing headquarters.
A plaque outside the shift supervisor's office commemorates the building's 1954 construction.
The eight holding cells at NADPS have been decommissioned and are used now for storage.
What had been the old court room in the basement of the main building now is home to surplus equipment.
The eight holding cells at NADPS have been decommissioned and are used now for storage.
The specs of the NADPS' newest pumper truck had to be taken "down to the inch": when the doors are down, the bay at headquarters leaves no room to walk around it.
Lt. Kevin Hayes opens the annex at NADPS headquarters. It used to be that firetrucks would be parked here, but construction of Station #3 changed that, he said.
The municipal courtroom used to be council chambers for North Augusta. Testament to it not being originally built for its use, the metal detector stands inside the room when it ought to be outside, said NADPS Lt. Kevin Hayes.
What had been the old court room in the basement of the main building now is home to surplus equipment.
The rear exterior of the main building shows some of the additions made to the structure since its 1954 origins.
The eight holding cells at NADPS have been decommissioned and are used now for storage.
Lt. Kevin Hayes explains how the breathalyzer test works. The Data Master room is the only basement space still in use at the existing headquarters.
A plaque outside the shift supervisor's office commemorates the building's 1954 construction.
The eight holding cells at NADPS have been decommissioned and are used now for storage.
Lt. Kevin Hayes opens the annex at NADPS headquarters. It used to be that firetrucks would be parked here, but construction of Station #3 changed that, he said.
Lt. Kevin Hayes, a veteran of the North Augusta Department of Public Safety, doesn't mince words when talking about the city's existing Public Safety headquarters.
“This building, it’s like a tank," he said. "It’s lasted us a long time."
Hayes is hiking up the steps from the court and records building. “It looks bad, but we could have a Category 5 tornado or something come through and that thing’ll still be standing. It’s a tough old bird, I’mma say that.”
Hayes has been with the department since 2002, starting as a firefighter and moving to the police side of it a couple years later. After two decades of service, he – and 65 other sworn officers, plus about 25 firefighters and 10 administrative staff – will get to move into a new building.
Ground is expected to break on the new headquarters late this year now that North Augusta City Council has approved the final design and site plan for it and authorized the bidding process to begin.
“We just filled in the building we inherited,” Hayes said of the current situation that runs back, forth, up, down and around across three structures built into a hill, and none of them serving its original purpose. “It’s going to be nice to have a building that’s built for us and suited for our needs and things flow.”
The eight holding cells at NADPS have been decommissioned and are used now for storage.
The main part of the existing Public Safety headquarters on Buena Vista Avenue had gone up in 1954. A plaque outside the duty supervisor’s office commemorates the construction under former Mayor W.H. Burkhalter.
The main building had been plopped on top of a previous City Hall and has been through at least two reconfigurations since then. Remnants of the old drive-up window for paying your water bill (circa City Hall #1) and the old council chambers (circa City Hall #2, also known as the current records and court building) help to characterize this Frankenstein’s monster of architecture.
As do the exterior facade and the quarter steps that rise an inch or so from the main structure’s basement vestibule, leading on the left into the line of eight now decommissioned holding cells and, on the right, to what might be the most modern part of the building (its grape-and-ochre wallpaper aside): the Data Master room, where a breathalyzer test machine spins quietly.
It’s the only part of that basement still actively used, Hayes said.
The new building, which will go up on Georgia Avenue, will house investigations, records and court under one roof and with the updated Fire Station #1 still close by at the opposite end of the property.
An Emergency Operations Center will be part of the new design and allow officials to respond more effectively in the event of a hurricane or other disaster.
But back in the basement of that “tough old bird” on Buena Vista, Hayes squeaks open a heavy set of double doors to reveal in the semi-darkness a scattering of surplus equipment.
Wiring sprouts from the square gaps in the ceiling tiles, and there are no lights down here anymore: the basement some time ago had been gutted for mold. Filmy light comes through that part of the windows that’s above ground.
What had been the old court room in the basement of the main building now is home to surplus equipment.
What had been the old court room in the basement of the main building now is home to surplus equipment.
Hayes walks to the far end of the room. Lying on its metal case is a light bar that had at one time topped one of those Tahoes or Crown Victorias.
“And then this here was actually the jury deliberating room for whenever we had jury trials. They would come back... they wouldn’t enter this side,” he skirts around the wall, “but through here.” In a different era, this had been city court.
But now it's scattered with extra helmets, air canisters no longer up to standard and the center consoles of squad cars (taken out to fit the vehicles with their necessary policing equipment). Eventually, after about 7 years, the consoles go back in and the cars get sold on GovDeals.com, said Hayes.
Other rooms are set into the wall, the doors now missing. And it’s here where that drive-thru window is set into the outer wall, one step down in a cramped pseudo-vestibule that is a little bigger than a phone booth.
“Everything has always been used for something different; it evolves over time,” said a smiling Hayes.
Up top, on the main floor, the old fingerprinting room is now an office where a quick report might be taken down. It isn’t optimal, said Hayes: the arms room is at the back of it.
“These are things we’re thinking about – layout for the new building. Where are things placed? I don’t really want to walk through an office if someone’s taking a report and grab some rifles like, ‘Excuse me, pardon me,’” he said.
About the layout of the building, Hayes notes that certain oddities – the metal detector on the inside instead of the outside of the courtroom for instance –isn’t normal practice. “It wasn’t overlooked,” he said. “It maybe just wasn’t forecasting" the room's later use.
The municipal courtroom used to be council chambers for North Augusta. Testament to it not being originally built for its use, the metal detector stands inside the room when it ought to be outside, said NADPS Lt. Kevin Hayes.
The new design, apart from taking into account modern day security and being fitted for the express purpose of a public safety building, is also being built with the option of future expansion.
That was part of the reasoning, explains Hayes, for separating the headquarters from its bosom buddy, Fire Station #1 (the two facilities had been together since the beginning, he said). But building-wise, the separation makes for a smaller footprint on the Seven Gables property.
He pauses. The new location has taken some flak.
“We’re good neighbors. I mean we really are. We’re not as noisy as people think we are,” he said, noting that officers are out on patrol more often than not, that headquarters is where they come back for the paperwork and that they’re not testing the sirens at the break of dawn.
“But I understand the not knowing and fearing that we’re just going to be loud and dragging criminals through the backyard all the time; it’s really not like that,” he said.
Back into the open, back up the stairs. More space for basic day-to-day operations will be part of the new design. Four shift supervisors currently share that one office off the main entrance.
The specs of the NADPS' newest pumper truck had to be taken "down to the inch": when the doors are down, the bay at headquarters leaves no room to walk around it.
The department’s newest pumper truck is also cramped for space. Hayes said that when ordering the truck, they had to get the dimensions down to the inch. When the bay doors are closed, there’s no room to walk around it.
Down the hill, on the back side of the records building, Hayes unlocks the officers' door to the evidence room and then one of the lockers inside, peering through its diamond grating. “They need more room, too. I mean, they’re busting at the seams for evidence.”
The backlog in the court system hasn’t helped either, he added.
Elizabeth covers politics, government and business in North Augusta. She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota and previously worked with a Twin Cities weekly. Her work has appeared in the Minneapolis Star Tribune and MinnPost.
, Post and Courier, an Evening Post Publishing Newspaper Group. All rights reserved.