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fuzzy handcuffs
WOOD RIVER — Police detectives sharing an office space with an adult entertainment store may sound like the plot to a cheesy sitcom, but it has been the reality for Wood River police in recent weeks — a reality that Wood River Police Chief Otis Steward said Monday will soon come to an end.
Despite having no complaints about sharing the former Regions Bank building with its new tenant, Doctor John’s — formerly Alton’s Johnny Vegas Boutique — Steward told the Wood River City Council at Monday’s meeting that the department has begun moving into its new home at 915 Whitelaw Ave., the former Acropolis Technology Group building. Steward said the department will continue to operate out of the former bank building, 501 Wesley Drive across from City Hall, until the move is complete.
The city began looking for a new location for their police operations around the time Doctor John’s moved in last month. Although there exists a stark contrast in the lines of work, Steward said the move is not a result of any problems between his department and the lingerie shop.
“I didn’t have a problem when they were moving in. All their employees were very friendly,” Steward said. “I spoke to Mr. (John K.) Coil, who owns the company — he’s down in Dallas — I talked to him several times. Very nice guy. Anything we needed, he said just let him know. So, there’s not been any animosity between (us).”
In fact, Steward joked that with the holidays coming up, he thought the shop might make for a nice source of secondary income for some of his department’s officers.
“I’m thinking, if somebody needs something for their wife or anything, we could just have them call and place an order. The squad cars are in town, we could drop it off for them,” Steward quipped. “You know, a little community outreach.”
Preliminary work has begun on a new police station for the department, but inclement weather and holdups with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency have made it a slow-moving process. With that in mind, Mayor Frank Akers said it made sense to seek another home for the department.
“Because of the nature of their business, we didn’t feel as though it would be appropriate to have the police detectives there,” Akers said. “As Chief Steward said, they have been very well-behaved. They’ve caused no problems since they’ve been there.
“But since we didn’t have to worry about a lease at that point, we just decided, well, let’s look to see what else we can use to house the detectives, figuring that it’s going to be another couple of years before we get the new police station built. If it would have just been a few months we probably wouldn’t have worried about it, but since it does appear that (it will be) two years or so, we needed a place to house the chief, the deputy chief and the detectives.”
The city was given keys to the new building on Nov. 1 — despite having only a handshake agreement in place with the building’s owner — and internet service was set up last week, Steward said. Installing phone service, which is scheduled to be set up next week, and an alarm system are among the last steps left to be completed before the building is ready to be inhabited, which Steward said he hopes can happen before the end of November or early December at the latest.
“(The building’s owner) had a bunch of stuff stored in there — it’s got a garage area, and he had stuff stored in it — so it took him a couple weeks to try to get all his stuff out. Then he wanted to paint it and spruce it up for us, so they went through all that,” Steward said. “So, we’re moving a little bit at a time.”
The council is expected to vote on a two-year lease at an upcoming meeting.