The New Canaan Police Department is expected to move back into its permanent home on South Avenue during the first week of June following a widely anticipated renovation and expansion, about six months ahead of schedule, officials say.
The $20 million renovation of the police station at 174 South Ave.—about $29 million with soft costs such as insurance and creating a temporary police headquarters downtown—long has been pegged to wrap up around Thanksgiving 2025.
Yet the project, which includes a complete gut and renovation of the existing 1927-built police station—the original New Canaan High School—with an addition of a new sallyport at the southeastern corner of the building, is now on track for NCPD to move back in June 3, according to Joe Zagarenski, senior engineer in the Department of Pubilc Works.
In requesting about $30,000 from the Board of Selectmen to move dispatch consoles and radio equipment out of the temporary police station downtown, Zagarenski said Tuesday, “This is the last thing we have to do before the PD moves back to 174 South Avenue.”
“This is a big milestone for the project,” he told the selectmen at their regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.
Town officials had discussed the need to renovate the Police Department for many years. The project started in December 2023—delayed by a former first selectman’s unpopular opinion that the town should build a new police department somewhere else in New Canaan, such as on public school grounds—when NCPD moved into temporary offices at 39 Locust Ave.
Zagarenski said the town has coordinated with the agency that handles 911 communicaitons—the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection’s Division of Statewide Emergency Telecommunications—for a June 3 switch to South Avenue.
The selectmen asked whether the town will need to run dual 911 systems temporarily during the switchover (no), when the landlord at the temporary police HQ will be notified (already has), who will undo some of the interior fitout work at Locust Avenue (the owner, because it’s less expensive), whether the antennas on the newly renovated police headquarters will be conspicuous (no, they’re on the side of the building) and whether a portable generator used at the temporary HQ will become useful again for the wider town (yes).
Referring to the contracted company’s transfer of equipment from Locust to South Avenue, Zagarenski said, “All the electronics go back to the server room.”
“They’ll coordinate with the 911 services for the move that day,” he said. “They’ll move all the radio equipment. They’ll move the temporary antenna at 39 Locust. They’ll remove it. They’ll reinstall the EOC radio equipment, and they’re also going to do a deep clean on the radio site that lived at the PD throughout the construction. It’s server equipment, essentially, and it’s been circulating dirt, drywall dust and stuff. So they’re going to actually physically take apart some of these things, blow them out, make sure everything’s perfectly clean and turn over.”
First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted 3-0 in favor of the $31,493.30 contract with Naugatuck-based NorcomCT.
The volunteer group that has helped guide the project, the Police Department Building Committee, includes Bill Walbert, Paul Foley, Paul Tully, Jim Beall, Michael Chen, Penny Rashin, Mike Mauro, Tom Turrentine and Nick Mitrakis, with Stuart Sawabini as a special advisor.