GREEN RIVER - When this city built a new city hall in the 1980s, the facility included a brand-new police department on the lower floor that was designed for 20 or so officers and staff.

Now, nearly twice that number work in cramped quarters in City Hall. Detectives double and triple up in offices designed for one. Finding storage space is a major headache.

Not for long, though. City fathers have amassed a war chest of more than $1.3 million through budget allocations and a state grant to help the Green River Police Department find additional space or new quarters altogether, city administrator Barry Cook said.

"The police department has been scrambling, and they are long overdue … but so far, we've just never been able to find them a facility that would accommodate all their needs," Cook said.

Cook said the department has two primary needs: storage and office space.

"We've got a facility with office areas and briefing rooms that were designed for maybe 25 officers, and right now we've got around 43 coming and going," he said.

"Probably the most crowded area is with our detectives and investigations unit, which has three or four guys in offices designed for one person," Cook said. "We need equipment storage, evidence storage … everything from evidence in small boxes and other small items all the way up to cars, vehicles and trucks."

Council members appropriated $1 million for the police department facilities expansion in this year's budget and secured another $362,000 from the State Loan and Investment Board last summer.

Cook said the money will most likely go toward the purchase of land and existing buildings, the construction of a new building, or for a possible expansion of the current facility in City Hall.

"I think what the council is hoping to accomplish this year … would be to take that money and build some sort of storage facility first," Cook said. "We'd also like to incorporate into that a new animal shelter facility, which desperately needs a new building as well."

Cook said the council has examined numerous options over the past few that ultimately proved to be too costly, or unworkable.

"We've looked at several buildings throughout the community, we've weighed the pros and cons of renovating the existing (police department), and we even hired an architect to do a full design for a long-range addition and expansion of City Hall itself … (which carried) about an $8 million price tag," he said.

"But the council didn't feel comfortable undertaking that large of a project, so now we're looking at building … or buying a smaller facility on property somewhere else in town that would basically serve as a storage area."

Southwest Wyoming bureau reporter Jeff Gearino can be reached at 307-875-5359 or at gearino@tribcsp.com.