A bridge not too far: Surf City Police Department moves to mainland

Star-News (Wilmington, NC)

May 11—For many years, a police station next to the sandy shores of Surf City was home for Chief Ron Shanahan and fellow officers — but that changed when an unwanted tourist named Hurricane Florence wreaked havoc on the island.

"Being that we're on the beach right now, it's just challenging when you get a storm that's blowing on shore," Shanahan said while packing up boxes. "You got evidence, you got all of your files ... you got everything to pull out of here and get over to the mainland."

Along with other Surf City officials, the department recently moved into a new $6 million municipal complex on the mainland, which combines the police department and town hall in one location.

"It's certainly going to be a blessing to be in a facility and be able to hunker down and operate when the storm comes," Shanahan said.

The old town hall on was destroyed by Florence, leaving town officials with a decision to stay on the island or move to the mainland. To be stronger for future weather events, Town Manager Kyle Breuer and officials decided to cross the bridge.

"Being able to bring them under one roof, it certainly has been beneficial for us," Breuer said. "We look forward to working in this fashion moving forward."

Breuer applauded Monteith Construction for finishing the work and getting everybody settled on time. Before the move, employees worked out of two temporarily locations, a community center and an older building on the island.

Construction began in June 2020 after property owner Allan Sullivan donated land. The project was completed in the spring with funds from the sale of the old property, insurance money from damage to the previous town hall and grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Golden LEAF Foundation.

The estimated market value of the old police department building is $2.75 million, and the estimated market value of the town-owned land is $982,000, according to the real estate appraisals. Pivot Parking, a parking management firm, is currently using the first floor of the previous police building at 305 N. New River Road.

To avoid future headaches of being so close to future storms and to better serve residents, the police department was one of the last to pack up. Located at 214 W. Florence Way, the new complex is next to Publix. Due to zip code boundaries, the building is under a Hampstead address but the project is fully operated by Surf City leaders.

For Shanahan, this will be his fourth time moving to a new building during his 28 years of service in Surf City. About 12 years of them were spent at the old facility. After getting settled on April 30, this year will be his first time working from a department on the mainland with more than 20 officers.

"As we keep growing, at some point in time, this will be the center of town," he said. "Surf City is no longer just an island."

When he started with Surf City, the only annexed property on the mainland side was the Food Lion shopping center, before the development of more stores and housing followed.

"I think it's going to be very beneficial for everybody in the community, being essentially in the center of town," Shanahan said.

Some of the advantages of being in a new building include more security, a state-of-the-art storage area for evidence intake. But the best part is having refuge from major storms. During hurricanes they stayed at an old firehouse.

"We would be separated from other town entities and staffing, so communication at times was difficult," Shanahan said. "Now, the town's administrative staff, town manager, and mayor's office is under one roof, which is going to be great for communications and operations.

"Not that we need another hurricane, we had enough of those," Shanahan said. "But certainly, it's been fantastic."

Moving forward, Shanahan assured the same level of service will continue both the mainland and the island, which receives a lot of visitors from North Carolina and out-of-state tourists. Going back to the old swing bridge days, Shanahan said the department felt it was important to have officers patrolling the mainland and the island.

"We've always had officers on the island and mainland," he said. "We always had a supervisor floating in between, so as far response time, I don't think that's going to be an issue at all."

Reporter Chase Jordan can be reached at [email protected]

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