Two down, one to go.

That’s the status of the Mercer Island Police Department (MIPD) new modular buildings that are provisionally replacing the employees’ working quarters following the temporary city hall closure on April 17, 2023, after asbestos was located in the HVAC system. City hall has been permanently shuttered since Oct. 3, 2023.

Presently, a pair of two-module 1,440-square-foot portables are located at the rear of the city hall campus (9611 SE 36th St.) and a third four-module 2,880-square-foot building is expected to be shipped to the Island from Calgary, Canada, around Aug. 26, according to Jaime Page, the city’s support services manager.

The two ATCO buildings that are currently in use are white with a gold stripe covering the length of the roofs. They were delivered in February of this year and have been utilized for the last several months by a portion of the MIPD’s 37-member staff of sworn officers and civilian professionals. A majority of police employees will remain working in a Luther Burbank Park building until the new building arrives and is operational.

Building No. 3 will be situated near the center of the two structures now on site, said Page, adding that ATCO will fly Washington state Labor and Industries employees to Calgary for inspection work before the building is trucked to the Island on a nearly week-long journey.

Here’s the monetary breakdown as supplied to the Reporter: One-time fees for modification ($17,100), transportation/onsite and assembly/removal ($147,481) and utility/infrastructure and installation ($468,230, which includes costs for the third building). Recurring fees for two-building monthly rental ($8,588) and three-building monthly rental ($17,176).

Page said the city procured the buildings through the King County Directors’ Association, which is a purchasing cooperative owned by Washington’s public school districts.

“They ended up being, from a fiscal perspective, the most affordable option. And we were able to get brand new units by working with them. So they were able to build them to our specifications to meet the exact needs of the police department,” said Page, adding that the buildings are being used for office space, locker space and more.

ATCO couldn’t just roll the buildings on site and put them into operational mode without workers completing a number of vital tasks before giving the go-ahead.

The set-up process included having an emergency generator-backed power source, which was obtained by utilizing the most cost- and time-effective option of pulling the electrical services from city hall.

“That turned out to be a pretty major undertaking when everything was said and done,” Page said.

When it came time for water and sewer connections, the city’s Public Works crew jumped into action and quickly got that crucial job done after ATCO assembled the modules and installed anchor rods to set up the buildings’ foundation.

“We had to go through a full building permit process to make sure that was approved by our building official. And after utilities were connected, then there was the whole data networking aspect and building security aspect,” Page said.

MIPD knew it had a challenging project on its hands and Page said the department collaborated with partners and consultants every step of the way to snap all the pieces together. It’s been a learning experience, and there’s more to come, she said.

“A saying that we have, or at least that I have repeated often through this process, has been ‘The only way out is through,’ because a lot of this has been brand new for a lot of us,” Page concluded.

At the April 2, 2024, city council meeting, City Manager Jessi Bon reported that council paved the way for a future public safety and maintenance building with a 7-0 vote to get the planning process moving forward.

The new building would be positioned on the current city hall campus, reads a previous Reporter article. Bon said the design work and planning was underway on the property that is intended to accommodate MIPD and its vehicles, the entirety of the city’s maintenance teams and their equipment, a large amount of the Public Works staff and more.