During 2019, the Police Commission repeatedly discussed two items listed on its meeting agendas — converting and expanding a former office building on South Main Street into a new $15.1-million police station, and better controlling a chronic speeding problem on Toddy Hill Road.

It is expected that police will occupy their new facility at 191 South Main Street by late November 2020. The building will replace a much smaller police station at 3 Main Street, which police have used for the past 40 years. The police department has 45 members.

Planning & Zoning Commission members unanimously approved the police station plans in July. Voters had endorsed spending for the project at a November 2018 referendum.

The site is on the northern corner of South Main Street and Ethan Allen Road. The town hired Kaestle Boos Associates of New Britain to design the project for the 11.74-acre site. Besides the 7.35-acre 191 South Main Street property, where the office building is located, the town owns the abutting 4.39-acre 61 Pecks Lane.

The construction project will involve the 21,687-square-foot former private office building’s physical conversion into a municipal police station. The project would add 3,654 square feet of enclosed space to the 1981 structure, bringing the building up to 25,341 square feet, or an almost 17 percent increase in its enclosed area.

Police Commission members also repeatedly discussed this past year how best to control a chronic speeding problem on Toddy Hill Road, a north-south town road which many motorists use as a shortcut between Sandy Hook and Botsford.

A group of Toddy Hill Road area residents have kept their speeding concerns in the public eye by attending all Police Commission meetings since May 2017 to discuss the problem. Their persistence recently paid off with the town’s installation of two solar-powered electronic speed displays along the roadway, which indicate to motorists their travel speed as they approach those displays.

Also, town police have stepped up their speed enforcement along Toddy Hill Road in response to residents’ complaints. The Police Commission had a formal traffic study performed on Toddy Hill Road in 2019 to learn how best to control speeding there. The results of that study are being implemented.

Also, earlier this year, Police Commission members addressed a rash of motor vehicle thefts and also thefts of items from within vehicles.

Police say that many such crimes of opportunity are committed by underage youths who repeatedly go from vehicle-to-vehicle outdoors in the nighttime, seeking unlocked vehicles, which they enter, either stealing items from within the vehicles or stealing the vehicles themselves, if conventional automobile keys or electronic keys have been left within the vehicles.

Police say that some youths repeatedly go on such crime sprees because they realize that punishment in prosecutions will be relatively light.

As a deterrent to such often-preventable crimes, police urge that residents remove their automobile keys and keep their vehicles locked when unattended. Valuable items should be removed from vehicles. If possible, vehicles that are parked overnight should be positioned in a well-lighted area to deter theft.