"The new building project is well underway and we are excited that the construction contract has been awarded," says Inspector M.J. (Michael) Maville, Commander of the OPP's Nipissing West Detachment.
West Nipissing Municipal Council has awarded a $9,094,879 (plus HST) contract to Capital Construction (2007) Inc., for the construction of the new Nipissing West OPP Detachment building in Cache Bay. The Capital bid was the lowest of seven submitted to the municipality for consideration.
Property servicing work, including water, sanitary, and drainage is underway. Barrie architecture firm Formworks designed the building (see renderings above). Construction is scheduled to start this August and is anticipated to be complete by August 2021.
West Nipissing CAO Jay Barbeau indicated during previous meetings of council the provincial government would cover approximately half of the cost of the new building.
"We are currently working out of a temporary facility in West Nipissing with limited functionality, so once our new building is completed we expect improvement in our service delivery," says Maville. "The new facility will be state-of-the-art and fully-functional which will eliminate the need for us to rely on our neighbouring detachments," for certain operational needs.
On the Cache Bay location, he adds, "There is certainly the advantage of the proper size property being readily available, the close proximity to Highway 17, and slightly more central for some of the other communities within the Municipality of West Nipissing.
As far as the OPP's takeover, Maville says he is "confident that our first year of policing in West Nipissing has been a success."
The Detachment Commander says "officers and civilian staff that amalgamated from the West Nipissing Police Service have completed their probationary period, and are tremendous assets to our OPP family." And, Maville adds, "The vacancies that resulted from the amalgamated have all been filled with OPP officers from other areas excited to transfer into West Nipissing."
Looking back over the 13 months of OPP involvement in the communities Maville says his detachment's officers have been involved in "numerous high-level investigations that have had a positive impact on increasing public safety within the community."
He adds, " The community members of West Nipissing have been extremely supportive of the OPP (especially during the COVID-19 pandemic), and we would like to thanks them for their continued support."
