Improvements to the department will help officers better serve community
by Jack criss
The Bolivar Bullet
The Cleveland Police Department will soon be undergoing a much-needed renovation through a grant from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Belinda Stewart Architects, PA, in Eupora–the same firm that worked on one of the new Cleveland firehouses–has been named the architect for the project. The result will be a huge boost for the department–for many reasons.
“We’re still in the beginning phases of getting everything together and haven’t sent bids out yet. The hope is to get started on the project in November but it could possibly have to be pushed until the first of next year. There’s a limited number of things we are permitted to do with our existing building since it’s on the National Historic Registry but the goal is to make better use of what we already have here in place. The renovations will make our office more worker-friendly and will give our officers pride,” said Cleveland Police Chief Charles “Buster” Bingham.
“We moved into our current building in 1990 so the renovation will be very welcome. The effort to spearhead this project was led by Mayor Billy Nowell and the Board of Aldermen who saw the need for renovation as well as some of the problems we were experiencing with the structure, such as a roof replacement. I give them full credit for making this happen,” said Chief Bingham.
“I’ll admit, coming to work in the same building gets a little monotonous day-to-day. I’ve been Chief going on 13 years now so this will really be a welcome change for me and my officers. The functionality of it is going to work better for us also and help us do our jobs more efficiently. Besides me, we have 46 sworn officers on the force and 55 total personnel who work here with the police department and the courts and I can tell you we’re all looking forward to what’s coming,” said the Chief. “Most of our residents won’t notice much difference from the outside of the office. The windows will look better and we’ll be adding an ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) ramp in front of the building and taking down the current shrubbery to make room for that. Those will be the only things that will look differently on the exterior.”