BEE CAVE, Texas — As the community of Bee Cave continues to grow, so does its police department, with Police Chief Brian Jones saying their department has more than tripled in size and is now outgrowing its current building.
The police have been stationed at the old Bee Cave City Hall since 2008, when it was retrofitted to house the police.
“It was never built with the intention of it being a facility for a police department’s operation,” Jones said.
As a result, Jones said they have had to modify the building for their needs. They do not have a training room, and the evidence room is too small.
For example, if an officer has to seize drugs, Jones said it is noticeable.
“If there’s ever any type of marijuana that’s seized, the whole building smells it, so we need more evidence storage,” Jones said. “We have one shower that doubles as a broom closet.”
Next door to the Bee Cave station is Lake Travis Fire Rescue, who cannot call in extra crews during big emergencies due to there not being enough space.
“I can’t put eight or nine people here for an ice storm or a red flag warning day because I don’t have anywhere to sleep on or to put another unit in the station,” Michael Prather, the Assistant Chief of Operations for Lake Travis Fire Rescue, ESD No. 6, said.
So here is the proposed solution: a shared facility for the City of Bee Cave and Lake Travis Fire Rescue, since they often respond to the same calls.
The City of Bee Cave will use existing general fund resources like sales tax to finance their portion of the building, while Lake Travis Fire Rescue has allocated $13 million. Altogether, it’s about $31 million.
“There’s no tax increase in order to fund the building of the public safety facility,” Jones said.
There is a proposition in Bee Cave that says voters have to approve any buildings constructed on city-owned or leased land. In May, voters will get to approve or deny the public safety building.
“Whether it’s today or years down the line, we will have outgrown his building and we will need a different facility,” Jones said.
Election Day is May 3, and the joint public safety building will be built on land that is directly next to where Bee Cave Police and Lake Travis Fire Rescue are now.
The new Bee Cave station would have evidence storage, equipment storage, private offices, interview rooms and facilities for victim services, as well as a locker room.
The Lake Travis Fire Rescue station would have four drive-through bays for fire trucks and 12 bunk rooms, five offices and a kitchen.
Boomtown is KVUE’s series covering the explosive growth in Central Texas. For more Boomtown stories, head to KVUE.com/Boomtown.