THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 28, 1996 TAG: 9604260192
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
Bids on a new 2nd Police Precinct and a new Beach Borough fire station will be due in early August and construction would get under way in November.
The two structures would nearly round out a planned $10 million Beach Borough Service Center taking shape on a 9.5-acre tract now occupied by the new Beach Rescue Squad headquarters.
The structures would include space for the Emergency Medical Services headquarters and possibly a branch of the treasurer's office.
Yet to come would be a new Beach library branch on the site, which is bracketed by 18th and 17th streets to the north and south, and Cypress and Washington avenues to the east and west. The tract is 5 1/2 blocks from the Oceanfront.
Construction of the police precinct and fire station would be completed in November 1997, according to David Grochmal, the city's director of general services.
Bids on the 21,000-square-foot precinct and the 18,000-square-foot fire station would be let together, probably to one contractor, Grochmal said.
The existing library branch at Arctic Avenue and 18th Street is in good condition and would remain in use indefinitely unless the city decides to sell the property, along with the former Dome site next door, to a private developer.
The Virginia Beach Volunteer Rescue Squad headquarters already occupies 1.4 acres of the city-owned property. It was completed and occupied last October at a cost of about $1.7 million. The sum does not include the land, which was donated by the city.
The city has been trying since 1989 to replace the cluster of city services bordering the old Dome property on Pacific Avenue between 18th and 19th streets.
The entire package is up for sale to the right bidder. A deal to turn the property into a Dixie Stampede entertainment complex fell through in 1993 and the city has been trying to market it since then.
Several of the buildings, including the existing fire-rescue station, the Emergency Medical Services headquarters and treasurer's offices were built in the 1930s and '40s when Virginia Beach was a small resort town.
The existing fire station at one time housed both the town's fire and police departments.
In 1967, four years after the town merged with Princess Anne County to become the city of Virginia Beach, the city bought and renovated the old Virginia Electric and Power Co. office at 18th Street and Arctic Avenue and converted it into the 2nd Police Precinct. by CNB