Construction begins on OPP detachment

News — 25 May 2011

Construction is underway on the new Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Dryden Detachment located three kms. east of Dryden at the former Marston Motors/U-Haul site.

The year-long construction project is expected to create approximately 50 construction jobs and should see completion by spring/summer 2012. The new facility will be 14,550 square feet, efficient and will house the latest in policing technology.

Dryden OPP Staff Sergeant, Detachment Commander Chuck Wesley says the new facility will have evidence vaults with a processing area, secure fingerprint room, nine holding cells, and a large, multi-purpose board room with public access capable of holding community meetings. Along with the building, the OPP will see a secure compound for impounded vehicles.

Some of the technology the new site will have includes video recording technology for all prisoner areas, as well as a scenes of crime identification room, which will have state of the art identification technology.

The Dryden OPP has called its current location on Hwy 17 home since the 1960s and Welsey says it will be quite nice to get into a new facility. The Dryden OPP is not the owner of the current location, and are tenants to the Ontario Realty Corporation (ORC). The existing site will be turned back to the ORC and at this time, there is no indication of their plans for the existing site.

“When it’s built from the beginning like that, everything is integrated in it, a lot more storage room, more efficient ways to store things, it allows the officers to be more efficient and allows us to provide better service to the community as well,” said Wesley.

The OPP is taking part in a modernization project across the province, and will help enhance community safety in the Dryden area.

By Ally Dunham

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Staff Sergeant Chuck Wesley (left) and project manager, Dan Stewart stand in the main reception area of the new OPP Dryden detachment. Photo by Ally Dunham

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