TOWN OF POUGHKEEPSIE – Following years of attempts to relocate the Town of Poughkeepsie police headquarters, built on an uncapped landfill and blamed by cops as the cause of cancer among officers, the town is taking steps to shuffle town offices.  At a town board meeting last week, the board voted unanimously to bond for the costs associated with purchasing the Poughkeepsie Day School facility and moving police headquarters to the current town hall on Overocker Road.

The latest in a series of stalled plans calls for the police and court facility to relocate to the current town hall while moving town hall to another facility, likely to be the Poughkeepsie Day School campus.

Town officials consider the relocation of the police and court facility to Overocker Road to be the best location for the services.

The funding for the departmental shuffle calls for short-term borrowing by the town initially, followed by the town going to bond for 20 to 30 years.  Initial costs are $13.2 million for the town hall and $46.2 million for the police and court relocation.  The town was unable to provide accurate costs, saying the numbers would be clearer in the late spring of 2026.

The town plans to sell the current police and court building on Tucker Drive for approximately $4.9 million after the departments have moved.  The current facility and Tucker Drive have been subject to random sinkholes and other sinking, which has created dangerous conditions on Tucker Drive and has exposed the inside of the facility to hazards.

In recent years, the Arlington Fire Department responded to a fire at the police department, where the flames were located beneath the floor of the locker room.  Other officers, both active and retired, have told Mid-Hudson News that the cancer rate among people exposed to the building has increased dramatically.  The claimants failed to provide data other than pointing to specific officers who have been diagnosed with cancer at an alarming rate, compared to officers in neighboring departments.

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