COLUMBUS – The Town of Columbus is putting the finishing touches on its police department expansion that has tripled the building’s size.

The expansion added approximately 2,000 square feet to the former house that has served as the police department the past several years.

Columbus Police Chief Chris Beddingfield said prior to this building, the Columbus Police Department has never really had a dedicated police facility.

“It was in the basement (of town hall), then a rental house and now we actually have a facility where we can do training and have a community facility,” Beddingfield said this week.

The expansion added storage, a large conference room, offices, an additional bathroom, showers and a basement.

Beddingfield said the new facility allows Columbus to have motorcycle training and a place to store its two motorcycles in the basement. Columbus is the only department in the area that has police motorcycles. The basement has two garage doors, allowing the town to pull in a vehicle. Beddingfield said the department could use the space downstairs to work on a town vehicle or to process a vehicle during an investigation.

Beddingfield also said the expanded police department has improved storage as well as security. Formerly, the department only had one entrance and exit in the front and the new facility offers a second exit. The new conference room can be used for training as well as a secure place to interview people and includes a kitchenette for times when officers may have to stay 24 hours. The new facility also has showers, which the police department did not have before.

Beddingfield said the expansion is in the closing stages, with finishing touches inside and paving outside still left to do.

Depending on the weather and temperatures, the paving is scheduled to begin next week, which will add two parking spaces in front of the police department as well as paving down the driveway and another parking lot by the new basement in the rear.

Columbus Town Manager Tim Barth announced during the town’s December meeting that the majority of the expansion would be complete before Christmas.

The town paid for the expansion partly through a loan and through its fund balance. The project is estimated to cost approximately $320,000 with the town financing $200,000 through Entegra Bank and providing $120,000 from the town’s fund balance.

The town approved a base bid of $285,778 with Dunlap Construction for the project.

The police department plans to hold an open house in the near future.