NEW BRAUNFELS – Construction projects are underway in New Braunfels that will help the police and fire departments as they continue expanding.
The City of New Braunfels’ new 65,000-square foot police station and veteran’s memorial is expected to be completed by spring 2022.
“This building is really designed for the future New Braunfels...,” said New Braunfels Police Chief Keith Lane.
Lane said they will have more space to hold community meetings and the location is key.
“The location is going to be really helpful to us. Getting in and out here is a lot easier than we currently are,” Lane said.
The facility will have office space for all divisions, public space, a training room, vehicle maintenance bays, evidence storage, a gym and it will be located in the 3000 block of W. San Antonio Street.
The project is estimated to cost more than $36 million.
With more people moving into this area, Lane said they have been busy responding to a higher number of calls for service.
“So we’re going to more alarms and traffic accidents and city ordinance violations,” Lane said.
According to New Braunfels police, from 2016 to 2020, they made over 10,000 arrests. Since 2016, they’ve had a total of at least 26 murders.
Lane said they are staying proactive and they recently created a street crimes unit.
“Whether it’s gang-related, narcotics-related, that type of thing, or property crimes,” Lane said.
The city is also investing in the fire department and is currently constructing two new fire stations at a cost of more than $12,000,000.
“We’re addressing growth as a department. We’ve added six more firefighters, beginning October 4th,” said Mike Wehman, interim fire chief for the City of New Braunfels.
Wehman said they are currently in the process of finalizing plans to build another fire station.
“There’ll be more people added as we get closer to opening station seven to staff the units there,” Wehman said.
New Braunfels Mayor Rusty Brockman said these types of investments are necessary.
“Our community gets it. They understand if we want to be the type of community that all of us old-timers want it to be and all oft hose new folks coming to town want it to be, we’ve got to keep up with the growth,” said Brockman.
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