Chelsea lays groundwork for municipal building expansion

The first project of many that promises to create a small campus of municipal buildings in downtown Chelsea is well underway – behind the scenes.The city is taking bids on building a new police building and hopes to break ground on it first thing next spring. The $2.25 million project will build a new 10,000-square-foot police headquarters. The city plans to make this a LEED silver building.”We’re acutely award of energy savings from an electrical standpoint,” says John Hanifan, city manager for Chelsea, adding the final design could incorporate things like solar panels and wind turbines.The city spent about $1.5 million to buy City Hall from the Chelsea State Bank and obtain land for its new downtown police station earlier this year. The bank will shrink its drive-thru lanes from five to two, making room for a new police station.Source: John Hanifan, city manager for ChelseaWriter: Jon Zemke