A firm that specializes in public safety buildings is currently working with the city to complete a feasibility study that should give Marion a better understanding of what it will need in a future police station.

Kansas City-based consultants Wilson-Estes are assisting the city in the preliminary phases of replacing the current Marion police station, at 3911 Katz Dr., next door to the Marion Fire Department's headquarters.

Built in 1983, the station was meant to have a 20- to 25-year lifespan, said City Manager Lon Pluckhahn.

In conducting the feasibility study, Wilson-Estes is working with the city to determine Marion's future public safety needs over the next three decades. Pluckhahn said the city's estimates will be based on the needs of a city of 50,000 people, Marion's projected population in 2040.

Actual work on a new facility is unlikely to happen in the next year, as the city is only planning to budget for conceptual work in the 2010-11 budget, which is up for a public hearing tonight, Thursday, March 4. Pluckhahn said a location would have to be found before many of the details of the station, such as the number of stories it would have, could be finalized.