Mindful of budget, Pine eyes options to upgrade Northern Regional police station

As Pine Township refines its 2026 budget, one of the major projects on the docket is the station upgrade for the Northern Regional Police Department. Potential costs of a new headquarters range from $20 million to $30 million.

The police department hired Buchart Horn Architects in early 2025 to complete a feasibility study on a new or renovated facility. Buchart Horn completed the study over the summer and presented it to the police board and provided several options.

One option was to build a new facility on a 5-acre parcel offered by St. Barnabas along the east side of the department’s current location. The second option was to renovate portions, if not all, of the building the department currently shares with Pine Township. The proposals provided by Buchart Horn indicated that the costs would be almost equal to renovate compared to a phased approach of new construction.

Buchart Horn’s findings showed that the NRPD needs roughly 43,000 square feet — an increase of about 33,500 square feet over the current size.

Bruce Hezlep, Pine’s public safety director, originally introduced the options for the Northern Regional Police Department’s proposed building upgrade and expansion plan during a board of supervisors meeting May 19.

Pine’s staff recommendation is for the township to vacate the municipal building and have municipal functions moved to the Pine Community Center. The NRPD would then take over the whole township building for their headquarters.

“This option would allow the police department to renovate the entirety of the building — it’s more than 19,000 square feet — and make that 19,000-plus square feet work in this initial phase. With that, you could allocate more space if future expansion was needed. Looking at benchmarking across the region, I feel like we could make a 20,000-square-foot department work,” township Manager Jason Kratsas said at the Pine supervisors meeting Oct. 20.

The project cost of this renovation would be about $7.5 million, according to Buchart Horn. Pine’s share of that building cost would be $2.7 million. The upgrade proposal could add $2 million to $4 million annually to department spending over the next 10 years.

“This study has been presented to the Northern Regional Police Board along with the four individual managers from each municipality. Conversations are ongoing; however, no decision has been made by all stakeholders as to which option is most economical and realistic. We are planning for the future growth of the police department as the communities we serve continue to grow,” said Bryan DeWick, chief of the NRPD.

The next steps in the design process will involve further discussions with NRPD staff and the township managers of all of the participating municipalities to finalize recommendations for presentation to the NRPD board and each participating municipality for review and approval.