On Nov. 21, 2019, Augusta police Officer Sara Rogers stopped a car for a routine violation on Western Avenue. The driver had experienced a medical event, and the officer pulled him out of his seat to the rear of the vehicle and administered medical techniques to save the person’s life. Officer Rogers is just over 5 feet tall; the person she saved was twice her size.

On Sept. 12, 2016, Augusta police Officers Tobias, Nyberg, Hutchings and Morris responded to Littlefield Street for a report of a male with a gun threatening suicide; they evacuated all of the bystanders safely and calmed the individual down. The individual put his weapon down and accepted needed medical care.

On Dec. 27, 2020, Officer Chad Webster responded to the Maine Veterans Home for an unconscious person and ended up saving that person’s life by administering Narcan and CPR.

This is a small sample of the work of the talented and dedicated officers of the Augusta police force do every day in our city, for the most part out of the sight of the average citizen. Augusta residents can be proud of their force. All police officers are trained in dealing with mentally ill persons. All know how to deescalate potentially violent situations. All are committed to make living, working, and shopping in Augusta a safe and pleasant experience. They make a difference to all of our lives.

We owe a lot to these police officers who risk their lives every single day. But the reality is, when it comes to providing professional office space, we have not done them justice. The 60 or so men and women who protect our families and our property and our businesses work out of a building that was purchased from the Navy in 1998 for a dollar. The intent was that it would be a temporary arrangement. Now, 23 years later, the World War II era wooden Naval Reserve Training Center building is leaking and falling apart.

To put more money into this inadequate and substandard structure makes no economic sense. It is time to provide the Augusta police with a facility that is efficient, modern, and open to the citizenry.

Several years ago, Mayor Rollins and the City Council began a process finding an appropriate site and commissioning the design of a state-of-the-art public safety building. After reviewing several sites, and listening to public input, they chose the site of the former Hannaford supermarket on Willow Street. This site is close to City Hall, and readily available to respond to issues on both sides of the river.

The new building will cost $20.5 million. By a smart use of $2 million in annual new revenues expected from an expiring tax-increment-financing program from the Marketplace Mall, the new police station can be paid off by a 25-year bond at no additional property tax cost to homeowners and businesses. We see this, as our colleague former Councilor Mary Mayo Wescott might say, as a win-win.

We are a group of former members of the Augusta City Council (and in Bill’s case, a former mayor) who support this bond issue. We are all proud of the great strides Augusta has made in recent years: our Third Bridge; the new Cony High School; the elegantly restored Lithgow Library; the modern YMCA facility; the rehabilitation and reuse of iconic historic buildings like Old City Hall, the Cony Flatiron Building and Hodgkins School; the revitalization of the Water Street downtown district; the University of Maine at Augusta’s new student center and Holocaust museum; the new MaineGeneral health center; the new court system; new recreation areas at Bond Brook, Mill Park, the Kennebec River Rail Trail, and the Bicentennial Nature Park on Three Cornered Pond; and two new or restored and expanded fire stations.

Augusta’s progress has been nothing short of terrific.

There is, however, something missing from this impressive inventory of community achievement, and that is a modern building to house our highly professional and dedicated police force.

On Election Day, Tuesday, June 15, you will be asked to approve the bond issue that will fund this missing link in the impressive chain of Augusta’s 21st-century development.

We strongly urge you to join us in voting “yes” that day as a way to say “thank you” to the courageous men and women of the Augusta Police Department.

This column is signed by 17 former Augusta city councilors: Anna Blodgett, Bill Burney, Gary Burns, Mike Byron, Ed Coffin, Kim Davis, Donna Doore, Harold Elliott, Karen Foster, Darek Grant, Ken Knight, Mary Mayo Wescott, Cecil Munson, Delaine Nye, Mark O’Brien, Pat Paradis and Gary Veilleux.