Centre County police station’s $700K renovation is complete. Here’s a look

Following six months of renovations, the Spring Township Police Department’s new station has been completed, with one official calling it “a massive improvement,” with more space and features.

Located at 1309 Blanchard St. in the same complex as the township’s municipal building, the department moved into new station in late August. It had previously been located right inside the municipal building.

The new station is still in the same area, but in what used to be a garage meant for storing police vehicles. A $700,000 renovation to the garage was approved by the township’s supervisors in January after it was determined that the police department’s former space was “entirely too small,” Spring Township Manager Mike Danneker said.

The department currently has 10 officers and a secretary, and the new space has room to grow staff if needed in the future.

“Before the new station was built, the police shared a building with the rest of the township’s staff in a space that was so tight, they really just couldn’t make it work,” Danneker said Wednesday while giving a tour of the new building to the CDT.

Danneker, who served as the township’s chief of police before becoming its manager, recalled a time where just walking into the previous station would give him anxiety due to “all the paperwork and clutter everywhere.”

But with the new building complete, all of the paperwork and clutter now has a home, and visitors to the station — whether they be in handcuffs or not — can expect to see an array of new features that will aid the department’s crimefighting capabilities.

Features make station ‘a big upgrade’

When walking into the new station, visitors are greeted by a small waiting area with a window for the department’s secretary and a door that leads to the rest of the building.

After that is the police chief’s office, then an open squad room, which includes a bench with handcuffs, a bathroom, a small kitchen, an increased number of computers and large storage areas to neatly organize paperwork and gear.

Just down the hallway is an interview room — something the department’s former location once had around 25 years ago, but got rid of to enlarge the then-secretary’s office.

“The [interview] room has one-way glass, a small table with seats and a little mechanism actually on the glass that officers can use to hang their body cameras on to video record their interrogations,” Danneker said. “In the old building, if we needed to talk with someone, we’d either have to do it out in the open or take them somewhere. This is way better.”

Farther down the hallway is a locker room with a shower — another feature that the former station didn’t have — and an office for Detective Luke Nelson, who told the CDT that the new station is “a big upgrade.”

One of the new features that Nelson particularly likes about the new station is its evidence room, which he said is “around four or five times bigger” than the one that was used before the renovation.

The new room holds evidence from all of the cases that the department is working on, with different types of evidence being separated into different places in the room. Only Nelson and Police Chief Adam Salyards have access to the room.

According to Danneker, the strict organization and detailed manner of the room comes down to the department working toward getting accredited, which is a status achieved by police departments that demonstrate meticulous compliance with professional law enforcement standards.

“Sometimes the accreditation process can almost almost seem like overkill, but that’s a status that most departments should want to have, even if it is sort of a prideful thing,” Danneker said. “It shows that we’re doing everything the exact way that we should be. That sort of attention to detail is crucial in this line of work.”

Another new feature of the station is a garage where the department plans to search seized vehicles. It also contains a drop-down door in the ceiling that leads to the area where all of the department’s records are stored.

In the future, a television and some chairs may also be placed in the garage so that it can serve as a training area or temporary office when it’s not being used for its intended purpose.

Room to grow, add new features

Outside the new building, because the police officers no longer have a garage, they must park their cars wherever they can find a spot at the station. In the coming years, Danneker hopes that an overhang will be installed off the side of the township’s municipal building that will cover five vehicles.

He also plans on turning the department’s former station into a workout area using some old weight lifting equipment that he secured from Bald Eagle Area School District, following the school’s weight room renovation.

“There are still a few things that we need to do here and there, and some upgrades that I’d like to see happen in the coming years, but for now the new station really is a massive improvement compared to before,” Danneker said. “I’m really thankful for it, and I hope the officers are too.”

Danneker also thanked the township’s supervisors, David Capperalla, Matthew Deible and Frank Royer, for recognizing the need for a police station upgrade, and acting on that need quickly.

Moving forward, Danneker said that the police department will likely host an open house for the station in the near future.