Construction on the new Cobb County Police precinct in northeast Cobb will now continue after the Board of Commissioners allocated an additional $2.2 million toward the project this week.
The sixth precinct, originally funded with $5.5 million in the 2016 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, will now cost $7.7 million after the pandemic caused supply chain delays and material cost increases. About $200,000 of that is contingency.
“During the pandemic, stuff that we ordered got delayed, prices went up, and it just kept mounting on us,” said county spokesman Ross Cavitt.
The county contracted with Batson-Cook Company to build the new precinct in 2021, and construction began that December. Now, it is about 50 to 60% complete, Public Safety Director Mike Register told commissioners at Tuesday’s meeting.
The precinct will be located in District 3 near the Shallowford Road and Sandy Plains intersection. It’s almost exactly centered between the Kennesaw precinct and the East Cobb precinct, and having police there will give the residents in the area additional police resources close by, Register said.
“There’s still a vacancy issue that impacts us fully staffing it, but doing it in a sequential manner gives immediate value to the citizens,” Register said. “...As we travel along the timeline, as our vacancies begin to dissipate and disappear, we’ll start to slowly staff the precinct fully.”
Commissioner JoAnn Birrell advocated for a new precinct for years, and said she hopes it will be completed in about six months.
“With excitement and pleasure, I motion to approve,” Birrell said. “This is a long time coming.”
