How would you describe this Lakes Region police station?

[Weekend Pundit]

Originally Posted by TomC

By comparison, here is Sandwich police station. This town has plenty of seasonal residents, including shorefront on Squam and other water bodies. And, yes, a big difference between Meredith and Sandwich in terms of population, businesses, etc. The point is that towns should be careful spending the people's money. A functional police station does not have to look like an Adirondack resort...

Indeed. Sandwich has a fraction of the population of either Meredith or Gilford and does not have the same amenities of either of those towns, so a small police station makes sense.

At one point Gilford looked into building a new police station, the cost being ~$4.3 million. (This was around 2006, if memory serves.) It was voted down, and rightfully so.

Instead, the town ended up renovating and adding to the existing police station, located on one end of town hall. The size roughly doubled and cost the town ~$1.5 million. The front of the police station didn't change all that much other than moving the entrance from the lobby of town hall to a separate entrance at the end of the building. So far it seems to be meeting the needs of the PD and the town.