Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Work on Sheriff’s Station to Start in May : Law enforcement: City officials praise the $25-million project as a way to improve public safety as well as the downtown area.

Construction of a $25-million sheriff’s station in downtown Lancaster is expected to begin in May, with city officials hailing the project as an opportunity to improve both public safety and the downtown area.

In a ceremony Monday, Lancaster City Council members together with Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich and Sheriff Sherman Block unveiled details of construction plans for the 50,900-square-foot station, which is scheduled to be completed in August, 1995.

“The sheriff’s station is a real benefit to the downtown area,” said Lancaster Councilman George Root. “It’s badly needed.”

The project is one of several county facilities, including five fire stations and a library, that are being built in Lancaster as a result of a 1992 agreement between the city and county.

Planned for construction on 6.9 acres on the north side of Lancaster Boulevard between Sierra Highway and Beech Avenue, the sheriff’s station will include a forensics laboratory, booking and jail facility, detective bureau, communications center and a vehicle maintenance building.

Block noted that he was on hand for the ground-breaking of the existing Lancaster sheriff’s station more than three decades ago when, he said, the facility was expected to meet the needs of north Los Angeles County into the 21st Century.

The Sheriff’s Department Antelope Valley station is housed in a building at Avenue J and 10th Street West that was designed to accommodate 110 department employees, Block said. More than 200 people work out of the station now.

In addition to serving the area better, the larger station will have a regional training facility that should aid recruitment of local residents--”a real plus,” Block said.

Mayor Arnie Rodio said the new sheriff’s station constitutes only a partial victory for public safety because the area also needs a new courthouse.

Work on an $80-million courthouse was slated to begin as early as the end of the year but the county’s Chief Administrative Officer Sally Reed recommended last week to indefinitely delay the project and seven other proposed courthouses.

The Board of Supervisors is slated to vote on Reed’s recommendation today.

“We have to make sure we get that courthouse,” said Rodio. “It’s not enough to be able to build a sheriff’s facility.”