VIDEO: Starkville Police Department Grand Opening

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI)- The Starkville Police Department is finally all under the same roof!

After a year and a half of renovations the new facility opened to the public Friday morning.

City leaders say it was a 20 year project in the making!

After a few postponements, the city opens its doors to the brand new facility that welcomes many new features, all the while preserving historical ones.

“I knew that one day, we would have a new facility, but it far exceeded my expectations to have *this* beautiful facility,” says Starkville Police Chief Frank Nichols.

The renovation cost 5.4 million dollars and is complete with everything the Police Department could want. But it wasn’t an easy road.

“In the middle of this project, they decided that we were not going to build it- after we had moved out into seven different locations,” says Nichols.

Chief Frank Nichols says he owes plenty of thanks to the Board of Alderman who came through for the department.

“The board decided to raise taxes so we can be able to afford this building,” says Nichols.

City leaders spoke of the pride this building stands for and the preservation of history throughout the building…

“This is a 70 year old building that they decided to revitalize- this building is an A-1 facility, that makes this whole downtown look good,” says Nichols.

“Part of it is to have such a wonderful building that we didn’t know was as wonderful as it is. You know once we peeled back all these layers and saw what we had- the original flooring and all the things that go with it makes us very proud and gives us a place the police department can be very very proud of being on a daily basis and serving the community like they do. They deserve a really wonderful facility and I think it’s so much more than anyone ever anticipated it was going to be,” says Mayor Lynn Spruill.

The ribbon cutting was a community event, and plenty were in attendance. Many thanks also was given to the men and women in blue who keep Starkville safe.

“I think you saw today from the crowd in attendance that the community is behind it and is really happy to have this one done so that we can just point to it as a place of pride and a place of history and we can move forward on to the next things that cities have to do,” says Spruill

The new facility will house the entire police department- for the past year the department was spread out at 7 different locations throughout Starkville.

The basement- which was flooded and was the reason the initial opening was postponed- is no longer water logged but is still being renovated. None of the construction, however, will interfere with the departments work.