PEA RIDGE, Ark. — It's no secret Northwest Arkansas is growing rapidly. With new houses and businesses that pop up, there also needs to be more first responders for the increasing population. That's why the City of Pea Ridge is aiming to get ahead of the curve.
"The first step is determining where we are, where we should be, and where we need to be in planning, especially at a government level. We want to look at 20 years from now," said Lt. John Langham, public information officer for the Pea Ridge Police Department (PRPD).
Langham said the police department has significantly outgrown its facilities. When they moved into the current building in 2010 with eight officers and no support staff, the city's population was 4,761. Today, they have 19 officers and a support staff, and they estimate the population is over 9,000.
"We don't expect that to slow down," Langham said. "We have numerous additions still being built in our city right now and our population is only going to continue to increase as we have more houses. So when we look at those things, we know, if we don't start planning today, we're not going to have that building when we absolutely need it, and we're not going to have any room to expand to provide our citizens with the service that they want."
Langham has been with the department for 17 years and has seen the growth firsthand.
PRPD is currently in the process of conducting a "needs analysis" with a third-party company to look at other law enforcement agencies and see what Pea Ridge needs in the building to be successful.
"If we get something in that we can use for the next 20 years, then we don't have to go back and ask our citizens to approve yet another building," Langham said. "This isn't the design phase. This is just a, 'hey, here's a general idea of the space that you're going to need in order to put enough rooms and facilities in your building to house everything you need to do.'"
The current building's biggest flaw is it lacks space. Langham explained that it used to be a shopping center.
"It was not designed for what we're doing with it. It was old. We've had numerous maintenance issues with it, which is all costly," Langham said. "To say, what's our dream? Just to have a normal work environment and not be cramped."
They want to build a new building to account for the space they would need in the future. They're fully staffed at the moment, but they want to expand their support staff to help handle the department.
"It's not necessarily that we can't use more people. We just know there's not a reason to try to open up those spaces because we don't have anywhere to put them," Langham said.
The police department isn't the only service in the city looking for an upgrade.
The Pea Ridge Fire Department recently announced on Facebook plans for a new fire station at the intersection of Hickman Road and W. Pickens Ave. They received a grant from the Community Project Funding managed by Congressman Steve Womack to cover 55% of the building. The city plans to cover the rest of the costs.
"This achievement is a significant milestone for our city, and we are excited to share this wonderful news with our community," the city said.
Renderings for a proposed new Pea Ridge fire station
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