Council to solict proposals from construction managers for new police HQ

The Cairo City Council met its architect working on a new headquarters for the Cairo Police Department on Monday night.
After a presentation by Greg Smith of James W. Buckley and Associates, the council voted unanimously to solicit proposals from construction managers for the project.
Smith recommended the “construction manager at risk” approach in order to best insure that local and area contractors and subcontractors had an opportunity to bid on work on the project.
Councilman James H. (Jimmy) Douglas voiced his support for allowing local companies the opportunity to participate.
Councilman Jerry Cox said that during his tenure with the Grady County School System the board of education had utilized the construction manager at risk approach on its construction projects and had had favorable results.
The new police headquarters is to be built on city property at the intersection of Third Avenue N.W. and First Street N.W.
Last year, the city acquired eight-tenths of an acre at that location for the purpose of building a new city police department headquarters. The council has also earmarked $3.4 million it received in April from the sale of its CNS assets for the construction and equipment of the new facility.
Smith has designed a classic, 11,609 square foot facility that coordinates with other structures in the downtown area. The new station will offer the city police more than twice the amount of space they currently have at the former train depot, which was converted into police headquarters.
Smith projects approximately 10 months to construct the new facility so it could be occupied by mid-November 2019, if all goes to plan.