Talks to Begin With Officials on New Public Safety Facility

BROOMALL– is moving forward in the preliminary stages of a proposed public safety facility that is to be located at the 10.6-acre site at the Old Marple elementary school site.

At a recent Board of Commissioners meeting on Monday, the board unanimously passed a motion to start the interviewing process of professionals for the cost analysts of the proposed facility off of West Chester Pike and Malin Road.

"It's in the infant stages right now," said Michael Molinaro (R-6th District), president of the board. "We're just doing the due diligence of what it will cost to have the architect construction managers...we're not at a stage of discussing financing at all."

According to Molinaro, the township has to consider whether or not they should erect a brand new public safety building that would include the police, fire and EMT departments as well as possibly administration offices or potentially just expand and update the existing police department on Sproul Road which used to be the old library building.

"If there was a public safety building, what would we do with the current police building and the facilities department currently in the township building? How would this affect the library and township building?" asked Molinaro. "There's a lot of things to consider."

Molinaro believes the current police building has been there since the 1960s, if not earlier, and will have to look at the proposed public safety facility project for the long haul.

"You have to look over it for the long-term," said Molinaro. " Our facilities right now are still in that old age but once you update and get modern, you start gaining space.The biggest thing for the planned building would be storage for all the vehicles."

If the plan for the public safety building goes through, the current Broomall Fire Co. building on Malin Road and EMT building on Sproul Road will be left vacant, which is another factor to consider, said Molinaro.

Plans have yet to be finalized for the proposed facility building at the Old Marple school site and discussions with professionals are underway.