The town of Brattleboro will move ahead with a plan to purchase the Brattleboro Reformer building as the new site for the town's police department.
Brattleboro town representatives on Saturday voted 111 to 27 on the proposal to purchase the North Brattleboro property.
Brattleboro is the only town in Vermont that uses a town representative system of government, in which elected reps from the town's three districts vote on spending and other town business.
There was some concern about moving the police station away from downtown. Police Chief Mike Fitzgerald says the move will not affect service.
"We don't patrol downtown because the municipal center is downtown," Fitzgerald says. "We patrol downtown because that's good police strategy. It doesn't matter where the police department's at. That strategy is not going to change. That philosophy of us interacting with the community is not going to change."
The town wants to build a new $4.5 million police station, with the Brattleboro Reformer renting a smaller space from the town, within the new facility.
