Port Washington Police District readies for new $32 million headquarters

A Port Washington Police District official knocked on Jeffrey Rosenberg's door earlier this month with an update, Rosenberg said: Demolition of the seven properties on the land that will house a new $32 million headquarters would begin soon.

Rosenberg, whose home on Lincoln Place looks out on what will be the back of the 25,000-square-foot facility, said he felt a wave of disappointment wash over him.

It had been more than a year since North Hempstead approved the project, and the demolition had yet to start. He was struck with a "realization this was going to happen," Rosenberg said in an interview on Tuesday.

Now, plenty is happening at the property on Main Street in Port Washington. Two homes and the parking garage for the former Austin F. Knowles Funeral Home had been taken down as of the last week of November, with plans to demolish another three homes before the end of the month, Police Chief Robert Del Muro said in an interview. 

The demolition, which will conclude with the removal of one more house, as well as the funeral home, by mid-December, has stirred up feelings for both supporters and critics of the planned headquarters. While De Muro has said the district needs more space to operate, some residents have bemoaned the size of the new complex, the increase in traffic it could bring and their belief that district officials did not engage in enough discourse with them before the plan was approved.

"This isn't the right location for the police headquarters," Rosenberg said. "You're changing the tenor of our neighborhood, and you don't want to hear from us."

Del Muro has long pushed for the district to relocate from its current facility on Port Washington Boulevard, which was built in 1958 for 35 people. The department has expanded significantly since then, he has said, with 63 officers and 20 other staffers under its employ. The bigger space is necessary, he said.

"You can't have four detectives on top of each other, two feet away; you can't talk on the phone, in the dispatch area, or bathrooms that don't work," Del Muro said. "It's outlived its use. It's way too small."

But some believe the planned headquarters, designed by H2M architects + engineers, will be too gaudy, with a fitness center, a community room and a "cool-down room." And they fear it will bring more traffic to an already congested area. Main Street runs from Port Washington Boulevard to North Hempstead's Town Dock and is lined with restaurants, bars, the Port Washington Long Island Rail Road station and the Port Washington Public Library.  

The police district can borrow the $32 million over 30 years. Homeowners in the police district with homes valued between $600,000 to $1.5 million will see their taxes rise from $106 to $265, Newsday has reported.

Frank Scobbo, the  police district commissioner from 2020-22, said in an interview he had pushed for several smaller, cheaper sites when he was still in office. Instead, the district purchased the funeral home and six houses for $8.8 million. 

Scobbo believes the facility reflects the district's "wants" more than its "needs." He cautioned that residents could decide to move if police district taxes continue to rise.

"It's excessive for what we need here in the district," Scobbo said of the headquarters. "We're not going into a country club."

Del Muro, the chief since 2019, said that "people really don't know what it takes to run any kind of business that they're not familiar with."

"Whenever I show anybody this building, they're like 'Oh my god, now I understand,'" Del Muro said of the current headquarters. "People see police cars riding around. Unless they're involved in a crime, they don't think about detectives. ... Or the traffic safety enforcement unit."

Del Muro hopes for construction to begin in February — the district still needs to bid out the project, he said — with the work to be completed another 14 to 18 months after that. In the meantime, residents like Rosenberg are left to lament what could've been amid the sight of hard hats, cranes and debris.

"I want to see them have a headquarters that works," Rosenberg said. "I just don't think that they thought it all through."

By Joshua Needelman

joshua.needelman@newsday.com

Joshua Needelman covers the Town of North Hempstead for Newsday. A Long Island native and University of Maryland graduate, his work has appeared in publications including The New York Times and The Washington Post.