The Claremont City Council Tuesday ended up sending the question of where to put the proposed new city police station back to the Police Commission for more information.
The commission had sent the council a recommendation to put the new facility at the Corey Nursery site on Monte Vista Ave. and Claremont Blvd. just south of the city's maintenance yard.
The council decision will have Claremont Police Chief Paul Cooper (right), who had his heart set on the nursery site, revisiting some other options that had been raised, including the idea of working with the city of Pomona on a joint facility. Wes Woods II had the story in today's Daily Bulletin:
Council members asked the police commission to return later with additional information on more sites.
``I'm not necessarily disappointed,'' Cooper said.
``We started this in 2002 and as each year ticks by, there doesn't seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel. But we'll be getting the information to them (the council) by the end of the year.''
Cooper said the commission was asked to look at the current site at 570. W. Bonita Ave., the strawberry patch fields at Baseline and Towne Avenues owned by the Pomona Valley Protective Association and the Corey Nursery at Monte Vista.
Council also directed the commission to again talk to Pomona about working together for a possible station at Towne and Bonita avenues, Cooper said.
The cost of the new station, an estimated $25-30 million, is one thing delaying the decision. No amount of grant money will come close to funding the facility, so the city's taxpayers will have to foot the bill. As the Johnson's Pasture purchased showed a couple years ago, not only does the project have to be worthy, but the funding mechanism has to be free of gimmicks or it will be rejected. The city council may have learned its lesson from that previous experience.
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