City of Rexburg making plans to build new police station

REXBURG – The city of Rexburg is in the initial stages of getting a new police station.

A site for the new building has not yet been identified. Mayor Jerry Merrill tells EastIdahoNews.com that they’re working with an architect and a construction management company to develop a design and estimate the project’s cost.

“We have been saving money at the city here. We’ve got a couple million dollars saved up to put towards it,” Merrill says.

No contracts have been signed at this point, so he declined to identify the players involved.

The goal is to finalize the details within the next six months. Merrill anticipates the construction project to last about two years. When the project is ready to move forward, there will be an official groundbreaking ceremony.

Conversations about a new police station have been happening informally for the last four or five years, but the city has only started to make it a priority in the last year.

The unveiling of the new Idaho Falls Police Complex at 775 Northgate Mile last spring inspired the city to start looking into it.

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Rexburg Police Chief Josh Rhodes says there are 53 employees working in the current 11,000-square-foot station on Main Street. They’ve outgrown the space in the last 28 years and it’s become inadequate for their daily operation.

“When we have a department meeting or training, we don’t all fit in the same room,” Rhodes says. “We’ve made adjustments to make the space work, but as we’ve grown … it limits our ability to follow through with certain cases without reaching out for other resources.”

The ability to interview suspects and victims is particularly challenging. The walls are thin, according to Merrill, and Rhodes says only one of the rooms is secure enough to “manage a bigger case.”

Fingerprint machines are in the middle of the work space and detectives double up on office space.

Rhodes says the evidence room is too small for the amount they collect, forcing them to use an offsite location.

“It makes it inconvenient to transport evidence and have it separate from the police department,” says Rhodes.

EastIdahoNews.com file photo, Nov. 2023

Merrill notes part of the ceiling partially caved in a few weeks ago. Though it wasn’t anything major, it adds to the necessity of getting a new building “so they can operate in a more professional way.”

During the State of the City address in January, Rexburg City Councilman Robert Chambers noted the latest census data in 2020 indicates the city’s population was about 40,000. The city estimates the population is now around 45,000 and there’s been a pattern of rapid growth for the last 25 years.

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“We’re a growing city and as a result of that, we have a growing police department. We’re trying to provide for the future in a better way for them to be effective and do their job well,” says Merrill.

EastIdahoNews.com will provide updates on this project as we receive them.