Since Rumbo is Rumbo, the theme of a new police station for the City of Lawrence has occupied space in many pages of our newspaper. And why this issue now? Very simple, since it’s seems that everyone has forgotten about it. Perhaps, with elections to be held in 2020, the issue regains importance and politicians again will fill the pages with promises, and their photos, of course.
If memory serves, the closest we got to a new police station was when Essex County Sheriff Frank Cousins offered to build a new police station, at no cost to the taxpayers of Lawrence, with the condition of being allowed to build a regional detention center on the land that La Granja now occupies. He withdrew the offer due to the opposition that his offer had.
After that and through the years we have received the visit of several dignitaries, invited by the mayors on duty, which include governors, presidents of the Senate and the Chamber. All have always been very impressed with the poor state of the building and most of them has given the impression that “something must be done”.
The last visit to the police station that we know of was that of Senator Barbara L’Italien, who brought Senate President Stan Rosenberg to visit the City of Lawrence to get support for funding.
“Anyone who has visited the inside of this building knows how bad this place is,” said Senator L’Italien, then president of the United Committee of Municipalities and Regional Government of the Legislature.
“Lawrence residents and officers have been waiting for a new police station, the wait has been very long, the city needs and deserves a new police station and I will do everything in my power to make it happen,” she said.
It was thought at that time, “Lawrence is closer than ever to get a police station.”
Unfortunately, Barbara L’Italien is no longer our senator, nor is Stan Rosenberg the President of the Senate, so we must expect our local leaders to invite their replacements, whether Senator Barry Finegold or Senate President Robert Travaglini. Fortunately, perhaps Travaglini not so much, but Finegold, we are sure that he already knows the state in which the police station is in.
Although we are aware that the police station promised by Sheriff Cousins is not part of the current plan, which is to unite police forces with firefighters, for which the city acquired the land adjacent to the fire station on Lowell Street.
The idea is as big as the cost of the new building, but the effort in getting it is worth it. Who is going to take the torch for a safer city?
