Newport Beach police HQ to get half-million-dollar makeover

The Newport Beach police headquarters will get its first major interior remodel since 1985 under a half-million-dollar contract the City Council awarded Tuesday night.

The $555,000 package for Santa Clarita-based TL Veterans Construction Inc. breaks down to $496,800 for construction, plus $50,200 for contingencies and $8,000 for incidentals.

The police building at 870 Santa Barbara Drive, which was built in 1973, will get updated lighting, ceiling tiles, a new electrical system, paint and minor wall modifications and repairs.

The project is expected to start in April.

Council chamber audio-visual equipment

Councilman Scott Peotter wants new audio-visual equipment in the City Council chamber at the Civic Center.

Peotter said the 24-by-8-foot white projector screen that hangs over the dais and dominates the room is “butt-ugly.� He would prefer video walls, or grids of 55-inch LCD monitors: one off to the side and one over the table where staff members sit during meetings.

The current equipment is original to the building, which is about 5 years old.

Peotter said the room was badly designed for presentations. Moving a projector for better visual alignment would put a piece of structural steel in its path, and presentations make more sense when the display is off to the side rather than looming directly overhead, he said.

Deputy City Manager Tara Finnigan presented upgrade packages that would include a “confidence monitor� attached to a dais-facing podium that would show what’s on the screen in television and web broadcasts and replacing one of the video cameras to provide sharper up-close images. She also said the city could keep the large screen but upgrade the projectors instead.

The equipment could be purchased using fees collected from cable operators to fund the city-run TV station.

Estimated costs vary widely. Two nine-monitor video walls, a confidence monitor and a camera would cost about $208,000. The same package with four-monitor video walls would cost $98,500. A confidence monitor, camera and two new projectors instead of video walls would cost $76,500.

City staff will further research the potential upgrades.

UPDATES:

2:50 p.m.: This article was updated with the expected start of the police building remodeling.

This article was originally published at 2:20 p.m.