Police Chief James Viadero told Police Commission members on May 2 that he would be meeting with First Selectman Pat Llodra by the end of that week to start formulating a document through which the town will solicit requests for proposals (RFP) from architectural design firms interested in creating plans for a new police station.

The firm that is hired would create some basic plans and a schematic design for a police station to replace the existing police station at Town Hall South at 3 Main Street (Route 25).

At the April 25 town budget referendum, by a 2-to-1 margin, voters authorized bonding for $300,000, which would be used to create basic plans for a police station. The tally on the police station vote was 2,214 in favor and 1,109 opposed.

Police Commission Chairman Joel Faxon said the commission is "very pleased" with the referendum results.

"It's very heartening that it passed with that level of support," he said.

Town police officials have long said that their existing facilities are physically substandard and too small for the functioning of a 45-member police department. Also, they say that their current 1.2-acre site is cramped and has inadequate parking.

Commission members have intermittently discussed the need for a new police station for the past 15 years, with the drive for new facilities now listed on the town's capital improvement plan, which runs from fiscal year 2017-18 to fiscal year 2021-22.

That plan lists $300,000 in spending for planning for the 2017-18 fiscal year. It is thought that a new police station may cost somewhere between $10 million and $15 million.

Although a site has not been chosen, it is thought a new station would be constructed somewhere at the town-owned Fairfield Hills core campus.

The building that holds the existing police station served as an agricultural equipment dealership until the early 1980s, when the town converted that 1950 structure for use as a police station on the upper level and town offices on the lower level.