Bucyrus post of the Ohio Highway Patrol moves into new home; open house planned in July

Now that the Bucyrus post of the Ohio Highway Patrol has moved into its new home, residents will have a chance to see the headquarters building during an open house celebration in July.

Lt. Ty Skaggs, the post commander, said the staff is pleased with the new $4.18 million structure, which houses both the Bucyrus post and District 2 headquarters.

"It's definitely a big improvement over the last building, which was quite old and reached the end of its time," he said.

The building at 3665 Ohio 4, which is now open for operations, was built on the same site as the previous building, constructed in 1953. The demolition and construction took a little more than a year to complete, according to a news release from the patrol post.

Still have to iron out a few wrinkles

During construction, the post moved into temporary quarters next door, in the old Checkmate Marine office building at 3691 Ohio 4. The patrol staff has completed moving into the new building now, Skaggs said: "We're all in here."

"Of course, as with any project when you get in you find small little things here and there that 'OK, maybe this needs to be tweaked this way or that way.' And we're ironing out all of those wrinkles, but all in all, it's been a success," he said.

The new building's features include a public meeting and training room with big-screen TVs, a computer and other features. It's available for use by fire departments or other groups, Skaggs said.

"We tried to integrate newer technology and upgrade it from where it was, and make it so it was versatile," he said.

A special room in the back of the post is set up for testing the blood alcohol content of drivers suspected of being impaired. The evidence storage area includes special lockers that allow any trooper to secure items — but then only designated staffers can access them. There's an upstairs area set aside for storage.

The new post's locker room doubles as a tornado shelter, with concrete walls and a reinforced ceiling. It's stocked with water, food and first-aid supplies in case staffers are trapped for a prolonged period.

The building originally was scheduled to open on March 1, but work was delayed in part by supply chain issues, Skaggs said.

"There were just some things that didn't come in on time, and everybody's dealing with that for a lot of different construction projects," he said. "So we had a little bit of that going on and had to wait for those things to come in. And you know, once one subcontractor gets slowed down because of their supply chain issues, well the next subcontractor can't do their work until the one before him is done — they kind of build off of each other sometimes. So it kind of created a domino effect where it kind of slowed everything down."

Because of those issues, the final cost of the building exceeded the $4.8 million originally planned, Skaggs said, but he did not have the final figure available.

The process of moving into the new building started about three weeks ago. The dispatchers, who handle calls for both the Bucyrus and Marion posts, moved in first.

"That's a big move, all of their equipment," he said. "Very involved."

Once that process was completed, the rest of the post's staff started moving in. As of late last week, a few little-used items remained in the post's temporary building next door, but Skaggs expected to have everything out in a few weeks.

Open house celebration to be held July 21

Public parking is now in front of the building and the public entrance faces Ohio 4.

"They can walk in that door and talk to a dispatcher and let them know what they're here for and they'll help them," Skaggs said.

People can get a more extensive look at the building — and the patrol's career opportunities — during an open house celebration scheduled for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. July 21, according to the patrol news release. Guests will have an opportunity to see the building and speak with some of the post's troopers about the work they perform daily.

The Bucyrus post has 10 troopers, three sergeants and Skaggs, who is a lieutenant.

"Like every other post in this state, we're lower than we should be," he said. "We should be at 12 troopers and four sergeants, should be our staffing. But like every other post, every other law enforcement agency, every business ... the work force just isn't what it used to be before COVID."

The patrol has been "really focused" on recruitment over the past few years — something that wasn't necessary in the past, Skaggs said.

Recruitment will be part of the July 21 open house, he said. Troopers from the patrol's office of recruitment will be on hand.

"I'm trying to get, weather-permitting, our aviation section to set up the helicopter and trying to get our special response team to bring up their big, what we call 'The Bear' vehicle that holds all their gear," Skaggs said. A K-9 unit also will be on hand. "The kids always like to see the dogs."

"Just different aspects of trooper life ... there's lots of different things you can do in the highway patrol, so we're going to try to have people here representing all of those different job functions, to give the public a view of what they do," he said.

ggoble@gannett.com

419-559-7263

This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Bucyrus post of the Ohio Highway Patrol moves into new home