Jill Schramm/MDN Acting police chief Capt. Dale Plessas speaks to the Minot City Council Tuesday.

A long-range plan for space for the Minot Police Department could get a serious look by the Minot City Council this spring, but in the meantime, the department is doing its own investigation into the use of existing space.

Acting police chief Capt. Dale Plessas told the council on Tuesday that the department has created four working groups to address important aspects of its operation.

“The point for working groups is to have a procedure for moving forward that isn’t going to be a top down procedure. It’s going to be a department-as-a-whole procedure,” Plessas said.

The working groups will evaluate and create policies, evaluate and prioritize budget items, investigate and consider implementing recommendations from a police department study and determine temporary usage of space.

“City hall moved out almost two years ago, and we haven’t utilized the space to any great extent upstairs. So, we’re currently hurting for space, and we want to make recommendations that make sense. We’ve looked at different things and different options, and it’s just a matter of having a group take a close look,” Plessas said. “The whole point to the space usage is that temporary solution while the city council makes determinations of which direction we’re going to go for the future of the department.”

The council voted to schedule a discussion on a permanent solution for the department and municipal court for May, giving the state Legislature and the working group a chance to do their work first.

Alan Dostert with EAPC presented proposals for his firm to do follow-up work on plans for remodeling the existing legacy city hall building or creating new space in a downtown parking ramp. The study would work off $15 million and $25 million construction budget options.

Council member Paul Pitner objected to building on the parking ramp.

“It’s better if they’re developed by a developer, get back on the tax roll,” he said.

“We have to put some money into the facility,” council member Rob Fuller said of the legacy city hall. “I think we can come up with $1-$3 million a lot easier than we can come up with $15 million or $12 million or any of those other figures that we’ve been kicking around, and it will get them the space that they need.

“I’m not suggesting we don’t have the police department’s back. I’m just simply suggesting that we can make them comfortable with what they have down there at a reduced cost to the citizens and then figure out what is the best path forward,” he added.

“We have to utilize what we already have,” council member Mike Blessum said. “I have a hard time putting it on the taxpayers’ back – to say, ‘build us a new building because we want it and we want something shiny.'”

Blessum said the council reduced taxes by returning some reserve funds to the taxpayers, but it hasn’t made operating changes to curb costs.

“And so, we can’t have everything. We can’t have cream of the crop buildings everywhere we go. We can’t have cream of the crop pay and benefits and low taxes. That doesn’t add up,” he said. “For me, I would rather start to make some of the tougher decisions as we go, rather than maybe living in a fantasy world where $25-$75 million is even on the docket.”

City Manager Harold Stewart said it has been a police department decision not to use more of the existing building as the space is being assessed.

“What I can say is, through the EAPC study, the current facility in its current state, in its current square footage, does not meet the needs of a department our size,” Stewart said.

Dostert told the council the legacy city hall building has significant heating and air conditioning concerns and accessibility concerns. Also, the current mechanism for handling evidence in the building is convoluted and not a good situation.

“So, there’s a lot of things inside that building that just won’t work,” he said.

Council member Lisa Olson pushed for development of the parking ramps.

“We don’t know that it would be the most expensive option because we’ve never looked into it,” she said.

The council failed to pass motions for further architectural investigations into various options and scopes of work.

Blessum’s motion to revisit the topic in May passed 6-0 after it was determined the delay still allows time to include any projected costs of a decision in the 2026 proposed budget. Blessum indicated finding a source of funding will be challenging, whether it involves a phased construction approach, bonding or another alternative.