Choosing to make a sizable financial investment is never an easy decision for taxpayers, but the residents of Milton-Freewater who voted for a new police station in May made the right move.

More than 400 people voted yes — 241 voted no — for the $7.7 million bond that will clear the way for a roughly 7,200-square-foot building. The structure will house city police officers and 911 dispatchers and include conference rooms, two holding cells along with offices and evidence rooms, and a lobby. The building will go up on a lot the city owns. The new station will take the police station out of the basement of city hall, where it has been since 1929.

The basement is cramped, and the police department probably should have been moved from it decades ago.

An up-to-date station will help the police do their jobs and, in turn, help the community. Police need resources to be able to effectively curtail crime and protect residents. A key resource, obviously, is a police station.

There is no doubt the price tag on the building is a hefty one for a small, rural town, but voters clearly looked at the issue from the perspective the money will be a real investment for the whole community.

Providing funds for police and fire services is never a bad idea nor a bad investment. True, rural communities do not have the type of monetary resources that larger metro areas can boast, so that makes any type of large investment daunting. But spending public money that will continue to reap benefits down the road is a good move, whether it is a new police station or new equipment for firefighters.

Of course, it would be nice if such investments simply were not necessary. However, we all must live in reality, and the reality is that police are essential to safeguard the community.

A strong police force, though, is just one of the solutions to crime, but it is the most important. Other elements, such as socio-economic factors, come into play with crime, but without a solid foundation of policing all solutions will be impossible to achieve.

The voters who gave the new police station a green light made a sacrifice. They decided to pay a little more on their taxes so the local police force could utilize a new building. The choice was a tough one, no doubt, but in the end it was the right one.