Council approves new old home for police
At its meeting Wednesday evening, the Sonoma City Council voted to award the $4 million contract for rebuilding the structure at 175/177 First Street West, where the council chambers and police station have been located next to each other for years. In anticipation of imminent construction work at the site, the police department had moved earlier in the year into temporary quarters at the old fire station on Patten Street. The council had vacated its chambers just in the last two weeks; its meetings for the time being will be held at the fire station, located at 630 Second Street West.
If the council’s vote had been simply on the matter of where the police station should be located, it would have been at least 4-1 in favor of Patten Street. Virtually all the comments from the public during the council’s 6 p.m. study session were in support of the Patten Street site, and council members Barbose, Brown, Sanders, and Sebastiani all voiced their preference for that site, citing its more central location and especially its higher visibility.
However, Barbose felt uneasy about losing the benefit of the $1 million spent on the project already, and Sanders, while unmoved by the sunk cost, was concerned that the number of uncertainties surrounding the Patten Street site might delay the project, begun nine years ago, for several more years. Mayor Cohen joined the majority, for a final vote of 3-2. Construction is likely to begin in a few weeks and could
