Livingston Beginning To Plan For New Public Safety Building In Future

City of Livingston in need of a new public safety building, and officials are beginning the planning process.

Mayor Curtis Hayes said the city now has a full-time fire department, and more investigators with the police department. In addition, the building is approaching 30 years old. He said the time is now to look at what the next steps would be toward getting more space for those public safety employees.

“We looked at possibly doing some renovations from a private contractor,” Hayes said. “And the renovations alone would be about $2.5 million to do what we wanted to do, and you still have a 30-year-old building.”

For that reason, Hayes said the city wanted to take a broader approach. Hayes said to get a completely new building is an estimated $14 million to $15 million. Hayes said they are still very early on in the process, and that no work is included in this fiscal year’s budget.

Hayes said the city would definitely have to come up with more cash. He said when the city designs the building, it will be one that could serve current needs and accommodate future ones.

“We’re not building it for the day, we’re building it so that you can house for hopefully the next 30 years,” Hayes said. “And I think the old building has served a great purpose, the current one we are in. But I think it’s time for the next level and I think it’s time that we start planning and putting things in place to make that happen in the future.”