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Bissell Hall renovations nearly complete
By DONNA BUDNIEWSKI
Reporter Assistant Editor
University Police headquarters, housed in cramped Bissell Hall on the far eastern reaches of the North Campus, is a hectic place, even on a routine day—a visitor who drops by during a shift change finds up to 10 or more people moving in and out of the command center alone.
Officer Hazel Harwell says the new locker facilities in Bissell Hall provide female officers with "a quiet place to go" during a hectic day.
But several months of renovations to the building are nearly complete, and will give female officers a much-needed, expanded locker room and their first private bathroom and shower facilities.
The department's eight female officers had been sharing a bathroom with staff, the public, student assistants and even the people they arrest. In the men's locker room, which also is being expanded and updated, one shower, sink and toilet served a total of 39 men, among them patrol officers, lieutenants and investigators.
About 70 people work in the building, including 45 patrol officers, eight lieutenants, four investigative staff members and their supervisor, and administrative and professional staff.
John Grela, director of public safety, says the department has been tight on space since it moved into the building in 1977. Built in 1958 as a church and one of only two original buildings left on the North Campus, Bissell shows its age—all of the original floor tile, most of which will be covered with carpet, is worn out.
Grela, who's been with the department since 1974 and was a student at UB during the 1970s, jokes that the department "invented doing more with less," back in the 1980s. "The building really wasn't big enough to house everybody comfortably. It's been very tight, with no real shower or restroom facilities," he says.
Out of two former men's locker rooms, a training/briefing room is being created and exercise room already is up and running. The old weight room will become a break room and the old briefing room will be turned into office space—eight members of the department have been sharing two very small offices. Planning for security for just one football game requires meeting with up to 45 people in a briefing room that normally would hold about 10 people, notes Grela. The new briefing room is roomy and bright, and can accommodate a variety of uses.
Another addition to the holding area, where detainees are kept and fingerprinted, is a private toilet—detainees no longer will have to use the public restroom, giving officers more control over their actions.
Every inch of space is at a premium—hallways are lined with file cabinets and vital equipment out of necessity, but soon most of those items will be housed in expanded storage areas or offices. Walls that haven't seen a fresh coat of paint in ages will be refurbished, brightening the space. All of the renovations have boosted moral, says Grela, adding that the changes "will lend a more professional feel to the building."
The budget for the renovation work was $540,000 and Grela says that the department is within its goal. Work on the building began back in October and should be completed sometime this spring.
"I'm very, very happy about the changes. I'm excited that we were able to make the changes," he says. "It's to the benefit of a dedicated group of men and women. The officers and staff are happy about it. It has made a difference in the way they feel about the place."
Officer Hazel Harwell, employed at UB for more than 20 years, is happy about the new locker room and shower facilities. "Sometimes you just need a quiet place to go—a quiet place to sit—and this provides us with that, as well as being able to shower if I have another meeting to go to after work and can't make it home first," she says.