Middleboro breaks ground on new police station

MIDDLEBORO – After 22 years of planning, meetings and negotiations, shovels hit soil in Middleboro Saturday morning as ground was broken at the site of the town’s new police station.

The $9.14 million project will replace the town’s 1808 police station and update it to the standards of a modern police department.

“It’s long overdue,” said Police Station Building Committee Chairman Ted Eayrs. “The existing police station is in an old building. It has been headquartered there since the 1930s and it’s completely inadequate.”

Eayrs said the building doesn’t meet various safety and building codes, presenting a hazard to those who work there, visitors and prisoners.

“This facility will comply with all of the revised codes regarding the conduct of police business,” he said. “It’s a very important structure.”

Eayrs said the process of getting the station project to this point was challenging in a small town with limited resources like Middleboro.

“It’s obviously a drain on taxpayers, and it’s seen as something that can wait,” he said. “It did wait – for a long time. We finally got the right combination of the building.”

He said the property is town-owned, which will reduce the cost, and about a mile from the center of town. It’s expected to be finished within a year.

He said the town will now look into alternate uses for the current station.

Middleboro Police Chief Joseph Perkins said building the new station is a “historic and exciting time” for the department.

Perkins said he’s the fifth chief to work toward getting a new station.

He said the separation of public and private space may be the biggest upgrade to the station. Members who come to visit the station will no longer have to witness people who’ve been arrested being taken into custody, or belligerent prisoners.

“We’re thankful for the residents that made this happen,” he said. “It does not go unnoticed.”