REBECCA CARRASCO

PHOTO: The once run-down convenience store owned by the state has been turned into a “state-of-the-art” police station by Chief Kenny Poche. (Staff Photo by Rebecca Carrasco) GRAMERCY – The Gramecy police are on the move. Leaving behind their old headquarters, on June 16, Chief Kenny Poche will host the grand opening at the new police station on the corner of Main Street and North Airline Avenue. The public is invited in to view the new facility and have refreshments. The new police building, which at 3,000 square feet, is five times the size of the old station, was formerly a convenience store. The purchase price was orginally too steep for the town’s budget, but Poche negotiated with the state Department of Transportation to reduce the price and, in the end, was able to secure state grants to buy the building, the Chief said, without using taxpayer money. He was able to refurbish the building through the use of volunteers and inmate community service labor. The new and improved quarters are part of a general campaign Poche has led since he first began serving as Chief of Police in Gramercy in 1998, to expand, upgrade, and modernize policing for the community. The force has more officers, more squad cars, and a larger budget (including $100,000 in federal grants written by the chief himself) than it did three years ago. Poche has promised the community “a state-of-the-art, contemporary police department.” Among other things, this means a department that is electronically savvy. He wants, he indicated, to use grant funds to introduce video monitoring of selected areas of the town. Poche has been able, thanks to cellular telephones, creative scheduling and plain hard work, to balance the demands of this job with his full-time position as procedure knowledge manager at Motiva/Convent, where he has worked since 1987.