Cops Project Faces Stream Of Problems

With the success of community development projects, it is inevitable that one occasionally will have a rough ride.

Such is the case with the Nevada-Lidgerwood COPS shop, funded through a community development grant.

After two years of work, the police substation continues to languish in paperwork purgatory.

Earlier this summer, COPS organizers handled a $7,500 bill for alley paving.

Now, they are facing questions from the city’s zoning, building, sewer, transportation and water departments.

“It has been one thing after another,” said COPS organizer Deborah Wittwer.

The neighborhood steering committee has been working for years to get a building for its COPS programs, which are currently being run out of individual homes.

Two adjacent houses at Addison and Wellesley have been purchased with community development funds for $82,000. The neighborhood committee has another $92,000 set aside for construction and maintenance.

According to plans drawn up by architect Al French, the two houses will be connected at both the basement and street levels. The connecting basement has been excavated and stairways stripped away in preparation for construction.

The plans have undergone seven revisions because of problems found during inspections.

Zoning inspectors still are concerned about a lack of landscaping plans.

Building inspectors recently found the old heating system inadequate. Costs for a new system, an unbudgeted expense, have not been determined.

“That means I have to sweet-talk someone else,” said Wittwer, who has gotten neighborhood residents to donate supplies and labor for a roof, walls and the basement.

When the COPS shop is eventually opened, it will have a meeting room full of chairs bought after the closure of the old Coliseum and space for a variety of neighborhood churches, social organizations and counseling services, said Nancy Humphrey, chair of the neighborhood steering committee.

There also will be room for corrections officers and a deputy prosecutor, Humphrey said.

“Hopefully everyone will have a corner or a drawer,” Humphrey said.

, DataTimes