MILTON-FREEWATER — For nearly a century, the Milton-Freewater Police Department operated out of a basement. Now the department is getting its version of an extreme home makeover.

The city went out for a $7.7 million bond for a new department, which passed in May with 403 people voting for and 241 voting against. If all goes well, city officials plan to go out for a construction bid this spring, with the hope construction will begin next summer.

For decades, the department’s nearly 20 employees have moved through a crammed maze below city hall. The department is nearly windowless. Spiders crawl up the door frames. Chains and handcuffs sit atop tiny benches with chipped paint. A small sink, refrigerator, microwave and Keurig in a hallway comprise the “break area.”

The department keeps evidence in two small places: filing cabinets and a safe that looks like it’s from an old-school bank.

“I could break into one of those with a paperclip,” Police Chief Doug Boedigheimer said.

Boxes and shelves overflowing with documents make the halls feel claustrophobic.

And there is little to no private space where police can interview victims of serious crimes. Police sometimes interview people on the three small chairs sitting in the lobby beside a drug drop-off box, Boedigheimer said.

“There have been times where someone has come in and wanted to talk to an officer, they’re out there waiting for the officer, and they just leave because they see where they’re going to be talking,” said Boedigheimer, who added: “On those really sensitive crimes like sexual assault, it’s a huge issue.”

The air in the department is stuffy. The department becomes uncomfortably cold in the winter and hot in the summer, city officials said. During one winter storm, water drained into the basement, turning the department’s carpet floor into one big sponge.

Two dispatchers work in a small, dimly-lit room near the entrance. They take 911, business and utility calls, which can be hectic when the city experiences a power outage like it did earlier this month. Linda Hall, the city manager, said it’s the oldest dispatch center in Oregon.

“It kind of feels like we’re dinosaurs,” Rebecca Simmons, a dispatcher, said.

Boedigheimer and Hall know these are not the optimal conditions for public safety work. But police officers, they said, are not ones to complain — at least to them.

The new station, on a city-owned lot across the street, will be about 7,200 square feet. It will have larger rooms for conferences, report-taking, private interviews, training and evidence. It also will have a public lobby, a larger dispatch center for more employees, and new offices and holding cells.

Hall said the plan also is to have a “wellness room.” This will allow police who worked a night shift a place to rest before they have to testify in court, Hall said.

“They work long shifts,” Hall said. “And they rotate shifts. In very stressful conditions, it will be so nice for (police) to have a nice break room space … Those things that larger departments have taken for granted, our men and women have not had.”

Those facilities, they say, will provide a range of benefits, the most valuable being more space for officers to talk comfortably with residents, something Boedigheimer noted is especially important with growing distrust between police and the public amid national police scandals.

“You need to have privacy to make folks feel like they can trust you and talk to you,” he said.

The new department also will have upgraded technology, including radios, video cameras and an automated fingerprinting system. A recent overview study by a Portland-based outfit found the city had some areas where the police department needed to improve its communications, Boedigheimer said.

“It doesn’t make sense to take a whole bunch of old stuff to a brand new building,” he said.

Hall said the city has preliminary plans for what it will do with the basement after the police leave. They might convert the space into an area to store records, she said. That could allow more space for something such as a judge’s chamber or spaces where attorneys can meet with clients, she added.

“Police are good at coping with their conditions,” Boedigheimer said. “But I think this will make them content.”