Sheriff’s Office opens sub-station on St. Claude Avenue at parish line in Arabi; Two other sub-stations being built on Judge Perez Drive in Arabi and Paris Road in Chalmette; all three paid for by FEMA

A long-awaited new sub-station on St. Claude Avenue at the parish line in Arabi has been opened and two others on Judge Perez Drive in Arabi and on Paris Road in Chalmette are being built, with all three paid for by FEMA funds.

“I am proud to stand in front of this magnificent building that will serve this community for years,’’ Sheriff James Pohlmann told a crowd at a Dec. 10 ribbon-cutting, which included Sheriff’s Office employees, representatives of FEMA and the contracting, engineering and architecture firms which did the job.

The new sub-station, which is 8,193 square feet, is at 6501 St. Claude Ave. next to the Jackson Barracks National Guard base. It will house the offices of the sheriff’s Criminal Investigations Bureau, Juvenile Investigations Bureau, Crime Scene investigations including facilities to process evidence, the sex offender registry and investigation of domestic violence cases.

“It will fit our needs for today and the future,’’ Sheriff Pohlmann said of the raised building.

It is the first of three sub-stations to open that are all being paid for with a pool of money provided by FEMA, at no additional cost to the Sheriff’s Office or parish residents. The one on St. Claude cost $2,187,030.

The three new sub-stations will also be a part of the Sheriff’s Office crime suppression strategy and should give residents “peace of mind’’ that the parish can be effectively shut down in case of an emergency, Sheriff Pohlmann said.

Work has also started on a 5,000 square-foot station being built at 7001 West Judge Perez Drive at Aycock Street in Arabi.

The stations at the parish line in Arabi replace the two sub-stations which stood there prior to Hurricane Katrina, the sheriff said.

There is also a 5,000 square-foot building planned for 4700 Paris Road, being built with the help of a donation of one square block of prime real estate by the Meraux Foundation

That one will replace a sub-station building the Sheriff’s Office has been leasing for years near the Orleans line on Paris Road. The savings in rent will be used to pay utilities on the three new sub-stations from FEMA money.

Both of those being built should be finished at roughly the same time in 2015.

When the stations in Arabi were built in the 1990s, Sheriff Pohlmann said, they were a psychological deterrent to criminals from outside St. Bernard who could see police were there and would know if they committed a crime they would have to leave the parish past those stations.

“I know it worked as a crime prevention measure,’’ Sheriff Pohlmann said. “It still has that potential and could be essential for us.’’

The sheriff also said it was fortunate the Sheriff’s Office, with the help of the land donation on Paris Road from Floyd and Rita Gue of the Meraux Foundation, both of who were present for the ribbon-cutting on the new building on Dec. 10, was able to build three new sub-stations with money from FEMA.

“We had a limited amount of money and needed to make sure we spent every dollar wisely,’’ he said, thanking Maj.Pete Tufaro of the Sheriff’s Office for the job he did as project manager for the department and also thanked head of Administration John Vickers.

Sheriff Pohlmann especially thanked FEMA, the Governor’s Office for Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, or GOHSEP, and officials of CDM Smith Inc., which handled the project while working with FEMA and the Sheriff’s Office. Drayfus Guient of CDM Smith and grant consultant Douglas Landry were present.

John Connolly, FEMA Louisiana Recovery Office Public Assistance Emergency Management Specialist, has said the Sheriff’s Office created its vision of how to use the FEMA money available to get the most value for the department, in this case getting all three new sub-stations.

Dwight Butler and Jenny Campora, both of FEMA, were there with Connolly, as well as Glenda Bocking of GOHSEP.

The sub-station was built by the ICON Construction group represented at the ceremony by Lyle Landry and Dale Turgeau.

Joe Crowley and Paul Jarboe were there from the Perez APC architectural firm, while the firm of Infinity Engineering Consultants was represented by Rachel Kenney, Marc Buras, Greg Lintinger and Greg Pier.