The City of High Point will host a groundbreaking ceremony for the new High Point Police Department Headquarters and Communications Center on Friday, Jan. 10, at 10 a.m. at 1730 Westchester Dr.
Ryan Ferguson, the marketing manager for High Point who’s helping plan the event, said this week that the groundbreaking will be marked with speeches by High Point Mayor Jay Wagner and Police Department Chief Kenneth Shultz – and by Arthur Samet of Samet Corporation, the construction company handling the job.
The Friday morning ceremony will include a ribbon-cutting and a ceremonial groundbreaking – though Ferguson points out it’s not really a “ground breaking” even though city officials are calling it that – because, in reality, the work will entail the renovation of an existing structure.
“It’s really a facility upfit,” Ferguson said, adding that the actual work on the building has already begun. The High Point City Council approved the project last year given the department’s need for upgraded administrative offices and a new communications center.
In addition to the speeches that morning, there will be the other usual things ones sees at this type of event, bizarrely clean and sparkling shovels, illustrations of the anticipated finished project and a lot of local leaders.
While the High Point Police Department will be getting a new office, the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department will not be getting a new office in High Point – at least not anytime soon. Guilford County Sheriff Danny Rogers spoke last year about his desire to see a Guilford County Sheriff’s Department office in High Point. However, the county is neck deep in major projects right now and the county commissioners have shown no inclination to add another one to the mix.
Guilford County is in the process of planning a new Sheriff’s Department headquarters in downtown Greensboro to replace the dilapidated Otto Zenke building, which is not safe in certain sections, has had a problem with snakes, and, according to some accounts over the years, is even haunted.
