A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Wednesday to commemorate a near-$2-million renovation project at the Mason City Police Department.
Chief Brinkley with the new lockers
Besides things like updating the infrastructure inside the building, which first opened in 1978, Chief Jeff Brinkley says several spaces were remodeled to make them more functional for modern policing operations, including updates to the locker room and training space.
“Our original locker room wasn’t built to have female officers, and the lockers were a little bit bigger than you and I probably had in school, like you couldn’t fit a uniform shirt in there on the hanger and have it not be wrinkled and not look nice. We’ve had a lot of change,” Brinkley says. “There’s a lot of focus on officer safety and wellness, and so we try to incorporate a lot of that as we made the improvements and trying to give our staff a building they can be proud of and be comfortable in.”
Chief Brinkley says the improvements to the building will also help when it comes to retaining current officers as well as attracting new officers.
“I think for new employees walking in or prospective employees walking in, there’s going ‘Wow, I haven’t seen this at all the other places I’ve applied or the places I’ve thought about working,'” he says, “so I think it’s a real commitment to us for them and their long-term well being to say we’re here, we care about you, and we want you to be comfortable.”
The project was started in November of 2023. Significant funding for the project came from Local Option Sales and Services Tax revenues.
(By Bob Fisher, KLKK, Clear Lake)