The council award the contract to architect Saccoccio & Associates in the amount of $150,000 with an additional $29,630 for additional services and a 10 percent contingency. Funding for those services has been approved in the town's capital budget. Saccoccio & Associates is the same firm that drew up the conceptual plans endorsed by the council in April.
According to those plans, the new addition will provide another 7,000-square-feet of working space for the Police Department.
The existing police station, built in 1979, began as a 4,680-square-foot facility, which underwent its first renovation in 1997 with an addition that brought the building to just over 6,000 square feet.
Town officials, however, said that project did not take into consideration future growth in terms of personnel, equipment, records and collateral public safety services. Since that time, for example, the number of town police officers has increased from 21 to 26.
Right now, the department's four sergeants share a small office with one desk. The same goes for the detectives office, which is a cramped space shared by two detectives, the prosecution officer and domestic violence advocate. The dispatch-communications area is also crowded and there is a lack of adequate locker room and toilet facilities.
The proposed new addition to the north side of the existing station will include a basement and add 7,000 square-feet to the existing building for a total of 13,088 square feet. The addition itself is proposed at 3,500 square feet and the basement, which will be used for evidence and record storage, is 1,500 square feet. There is also another 2,000 square feet of space for additional accommodations.

The addition will feature a handicapped accessible lobby and a community room with restrooms that will house the Burrillville Municipal Court and can be shared with town and civic organizations. The police administrative offices will move into the new addition, including the offices for police chief, three lieutenants and the chief's administrative aid. The addition of the basement will be used as storage space for records and evidence, as well as the emergency management office.

When the conceputal plans were presented to the council in April, at least two members of the council, Norman Mainville and Kevin Blais, wanted assurances the town will not repeat the mistake it made in 1997 and that the new addition will serve the town for many years to come.
Town Manager Michael C. Wood assured the council that the expansion as proposed is designed to allow for future expansion.
Blais did not support the vote to send out requests for proposals for the  definitive design plans and bid specifications, saying it would have been better to postpone that action until after a May 1 workshop with the Senior Center Task Force and Planning Board to discuss a seven-acre parcel to the left of the police station the town has targeted for a new senior center.