The Paul Laurence Dunbar Elementary School building that currently houses Children & Families First’s “Telemon” early education center, will soon have a new tenant and a new name. During the recent Laurel Mayor and Council meeting, Town Manager Jamie Smith gave an update of the status of renovations at the building.
She said that work has progressed and it could be as early as December when the Laurel Police Department joins Telemon as a tenant of the building. It had been hoped the police department would be in the building in October, but furnishings are taking longer than expected to arrive. “We don’t want to rush things,” Smith said.
With the relocating of the police department to the Dunbar location, the name of the building will be changed to “Paul Laurence Dunbar Public Facility, Public Safety Building.” Smith said the new name will be installed, and furniture is arriving. “The project is done, other than a few small things here and there,” she said.
The town will schedule an open house once the police department has made its official move into the building. “We will have a couple of hours event. This way people can kind of come and go and take tours of the police department,” Smith said. “There may be some areas that the public won’t be allowed in just because of legalities and things that are protected and private. But as soon as we get the open house scheduled, we will advertise to the public. We hope to have a little ceremony and allow the public to see how this building has transitioned from its prior use to a new environment.”
Laurel Mayor John Shwed and members of the council have toured the new facility and look forward to a public unveiling. “All I’m going to say is that when the general public sees it, they will be amazed at what the facility and the police department looks like. I think it’s going to be on par with anything like it in a bigger city like Milford or even Dover. That’s my personal opinion,” he said.
Shwed said the town has lived up to its promise that municipal tax funds would not be used to renovate the Dunbar building. “All the funds that have paid for the renovations and construction have either been grant funding or bond bill funding,” he said. “We took a pledge when we took the property as it was declared excess from the school district. And yes, Jamie (Smith) has done an incredible thing working with our state and federal partners.”
Councilwoman Robin Fisher-Cornish expressed appreciation for the work done by Smith, the police department and others is helping keep the tax payers from shouldering the burden for the costs of renovating Dunbar. She asked Smith to share how much money has been saved by utilizing local, state and federal grants and other unaffiliated sources to pay for the work.
Smith responded that grants are still forthcoming to costs of furniture and other equipment, but thus far the town has been successful in acquiring $2.3 million from grants and other contributions to pay for the work at the Paul L. Dunbar building.
