During Thursday evening’s city council meeting, the council unanimously approved the donation of a plot of land for the south police substation.
This four acre property was donated by Thomas Payne, owner of Rocket Partners I, LLC.
“I was excited to be able to participate and give that land to the city,” said Payne.
The property, located at 140th Street and Indiana Avenue, sits close to the city limit. It will cover from 19th and 24th to the south city limits. Lubbock Chief of Police, Greg Stevens, said this was intentional as they look ahead into the future of the city.
“Right now the substations will be sort of inward looking if you will, preparing for future expansion and growth to where they will be more outward looking,” he said.
Since the land was donated, Stevens said that saved a lot of money in their $60 million dollar budget to go towards other expenses in their substation expansion project.
“That means the more we can do towards making sure we have all the equipment, put a little more square footage, or whatever it is that we can stay within budget like we told the citizens we were going to do,” he said.
The east substation at Historic Dunbar Park will be the first to undergo construction, followed by the south substation. The department is still looking for the third location in the north of the city.
Stevens said the sub-station expansion project should be done in less than three years.
