BANGOR, Maine — Bangor City Council approved a $1.1 million project to tear down the former Bangor Police Department headquarters on Court Street during its meeting Monday night.
The city’s defunct police station has been vacant since 2006, when the force moved from the 73-year-old building to its $8 million Summer Street station. Costs to refurbish the building for another use were estimated to run $20 million-$30 million, a cost councilors couldn’t justify.
The demolition work is likely to start sometime in early or mid-May, according to city engineers.
The demolition itself will cost $400,000, and a $201,000 retaining wall will be built to prevent a portion of Court Street, which is currently stabilized by the building, from sliding downhill into the Kenduskeag Stream.
A parking lot will be constructed at the former police station site.
Also during Monday night’s meeting, the council established a new polling location inside the Cross Insurance Center for the June elections.
Rather than casting ballots in the ballroom, voters will gather in the concourse. The move was made so that elderly and disabled voters had less ground to cover between their cars and the ballot boxes.
The move may not be permanent. The Secretary of State’s Office approved the new location for the June election, but says it wants to review how that goes before approving the concourse for future election use.
Both the Secretary of State’s Office and Bangor’s city clerk worry that the space might not be appropriate for elections that draw large crowds because election officials might not be able to have a view of the whole area.