Officials break ground on the new building, which will replace the Bank of America at 1 Walnut St. At right, a rendering of the state-of-the-art facility
For more than a decade, Haddonfield’s Police Chief Jason Cutler’s goal has been to provide a safe and secure police facility for officers, residents and even the clientele who have to visit the department.
That goal has become a reality with a $5.5-million project paid for with federal and state funding that will transform the current Bank of America at 1 Walnut St. into a state-of-the-art police station. Cutler; Congressman Donald Norcross; and Jane Asselta, state director for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development, were among officials who broke ground at the new facility on Oct. 26.
Cutler recalled that when Colleen Bianco Bezich became mayor in 2019, she asked him what he wanted to accomplish and what his goals were for the police. He mentioned a new police facility.
“Next she goes, ‘Let’s see where you are living,'” Cutler recounted, “let’s see where your home is.'”
The Haddonfield department’s current 100-year-old building at 242 Kings Highway East “does not work anymore,” he acknowledged. The state Department of Corrections has given the force extensions on corrections and upgrades needed to meet the standards of a police facility. One of them was a sally port, a secured entryway into a police station.
Cutler and Bianco Bezich, who serves as director of public safety, quickly realized that it would be more cost-effective to move into a new building rather than retrofit the existing one. With the state and federal funds, the force will be able – once construction by TN Ward Builders is complete – to move into a facility that meets today’s standards.
That means it will have a sally port.
“We will have everything required under today’s requirement,” Cutler emphasized of a facility that is expected to open next year. “The DOC (corrections department) has been with us from the start of the project. We can’t put a shovel in ground without their approval.”
The new facility can also be shared by other police departments if a need occurs. Assemblyman Louis Greenwald recalled spending time in Haddonfield in both his private life and his work through public service.
“This community is a historic community …” he observed. “Sometimes historic becomes a euphemism for old, and I think the police department would fit that mold … in a 100-year-old building.”
Greenwald also noted that the $5.5 million grant to Haddonfield police marks the single largest investment in the state. The USDA also provided a grant of $500,000 for the purchase of equipment.
For his part, Cutler looks forward to another ribbon-cutting sometime next year.
