The city plans to renovate the Exeter Police Department’s exterior walls to remedy years of water and heat damage, also plan to add a police badge mural on the entry wall
EXETER – Exeter’s police station and city administration building is getting a new look, as the outside walls will be renovated to remedy weather damage.
After years of heat and water damage to the building’s wooden walls, the Exeter Police Department, which is also connected to the city administration building, will be getting a makeover. City manager Adam Ennis said the building will get entirely re-plastered, and even have a large badge mural painted on the front of the building. The funding for the project will partially come from Measure P, the city’s sales tax. This project is still in its planning phases as the city and its architect Eric McConnaughey have more work to do before shovels can hit the ground.
“We needed to do some work on [the building which] was deteriorating and has been deteriorating fairly quickly,” Ennis said. “It was one of those projects where we’re trying to find out what the scope was, and it took a little bit of work with ADA requirements and code.”
The exterior walls were the main concern for the city, as they have aged plywood siding that can easily be exposed to water damage. McConnaughey recommended that the city remove the plywood siding, wrap the building with a water barrier and then stucco the entire exterior. This will not only extend the life of the building and protect it from the weather, but also give it a much cleaner look since it will not be weighed down by heavy plywood paneling, according to McConnaughey. There will also be some interior walls that will be removed in the police department to open up the space and make it more efficient.
“There’s a three and a half foot facia on that building, which pulls it down, weighs it down and makes it seem like it’s a smaller building,” McConnaughey said. “Looking into the structure of it, that’s over-framing and that can be removed.”
In the entryway of the east side of the building, there will be a new low pitch roof with a gutter system, that way residents or employees will not be exposed to watershed from the building when entering. In addition to the exterior renovations, Lieutenant Brett Inglehart suggested the large badge mural on the wall of the department, similar to one that the Visalia Police Station has at substation two. Chief John Hall said that they wanted to find something to put there since it is such a large, bare wall.
The city is in its planning phases still, so construction has not started on the building just yet. Before construction can start, there are a few more tasks the architect must complete, such as ensuring the building is ADA compliant. If it is not, then the non-compliant facilities would have to be addressed as well.
