Police Station, Municipal Court officially open

By Lindsey Vaculin

General Manager

The Cameron Police Department and Municipal Court officially opened to the community on Nov. 7 with a ribbon cutting and grand opening.

“We are extremely proud of what we have here,” Cameron Police Chief Randy Dixon said. “We are tickled to be in this building. This structure will last many, many years for this organization and city.”

Dixon commended his officers and everyone that works in the department for their hard work in making the building a reality.

“The building that we were in was built in the 1900s,” he said. “It was built as a fire station and after the fire department built a new structure the city turned it into City Hall and it became the maintenance department and police department.”

“The reason we needed to move was real simple,” Dixon said. “The building was outdated. It served the citizens very well, but it was time. It needed a lot of work to make it modern.”

Dixon commented on the new, modern building.

“Our communications center is great,” he said. “There isn’t a more modern one around. We have everything that a $10 million system would have in it. We are very proud of it. The City fathers and mothers did very well for us in this building.”

The Municipal Court will also be housed in the new building.

“If you saw the courtroom up front, it is extremely nice,” he said. “It is what a city of this size and magnitude should have - operations that are modern and professional.”

Dixon credited Cameron Mayor Connie Anderle and City Manager Rhett Parker for making the new building a reality. 

“We knew we had to do something,” he said. “We had gotten a few estimates on a new building and it was $1.5 to $2 million and we all knew the city couldn’t afford that. The alternative was to renovate a building that would fit our needs and make it something that Cameron would be proud of.”

Parker found the new building – the old Safeway building – located at 308 South Houston Avenue in Cameron. 

“The entire project would cost between $350,000 and $500,000,” Dixon said. “There wouldn’t be any tax increases. We used current city funds and sold a drug confiscated house. Our officer Tony Maskunas was willing to offer his time to see what we could do with this building. We assigned one police officer that oversaw the construction of this building and we had two other officers that helped and had contract labor that helped. This was a group project of the city and police department.”

Dixon said that through the help of the 1033 program through the Federal Government a lot of equipment and supplies were found. The training room was paid for by a grant from the William’s Foundation and another grant from the Central Texas Council of Governments paid for a large generator and the relocation of the 911 Center.

“We contracted four things out – the façade for the front, the plumbing, air conditioning and carpet,” he said. “Everything else was done by police officers and volunteers giving their time. This building is what a police department dreams of. Please roam the building all you want.” 

Dixon also gave credit to Craig Arnold and his city crew and Gerald Brunson and the water department for all of their help with the building.

“Tony facilitated this and worked seven days a week sometimes and did a wonderful job for us,” he said. “Lenny Berthiaume, Jacob Thompson, John Thompson, Lizzie Trdy and Mary Stanford really helped us out. Lizzie and Mary did all the painting over the summer.”

“Everybody in this room contributed a lot to this building and it couldn’t have been done without initiative and elbow grease,” City Manager Rhett Parker said.