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From Superior Avenue, the new City of Tomah Police Building is now recognizable. The building has gone up, and work continues on the interior. But project manager Dick Kildahl said that there is still a lot of work to do.

“It is coming along, but we have got a lot of work to do yet,” Kildahl said. “I’d say we are about two weeks behind, but that is not critical by any means.”

The sidewalks on the east and north sides of the building have been poured, and Kildahl said the front parking spots along Superior Avenue may be opened for use as early as this week. Inside, two stairways are in place, and the elevator awaits inspection.

Ground was broken for the police building on October 1. The new facility has four garage stalls, that will include a sally port and impound bay. Offices for the Police Chief, Lieutenants, administrative personnel and investigators will be located on the first floor of the building, as well as a squad report room. Kildahl said that the building was built with possible future internal expansion in mind.

“The squad report room will accommodate six per shift to begin with, but there will be room to expand,” Kildahl said. “Room for internal expansion was one of the issues when we started discussion.”

Kildahl said that the first-floor multipurpose room has room for 40-50 people. The police building cannot hold accused persons, but will have two hard interview rooms, a soft interview room, and a juvenile interview room. Several rooms will offer the Police Department on-site access they have not enjoyed in the past to fitness and training rooms, as well as a hazardous evidence storage room.

“(Chief) Wes Revels told me that they (police) used to go to Fort McCoy or the VA for mechanics of arrest training,” Kildahl said. “Now they will be able to store and train on site.”

Kildahl said that the cold and snowy winter caused a slight delay in construction, but he doesn’t think the building will open for business much later than the originally predicted date of September 1.

“We had nice weather in October, but when November hit, it was just relentless with snow and cold. I remember guys trying to keep a tarp on the scaffolding when it was 17-below zero,” Kildahl said. “The completion date was schedule for September 1. I don’t think we will miss that by much.”