A new “cop shop” is moving into the neighborhood on East Harbor Road in Freeland this fall.

On Monday, Island County commissioners approved the purchase of a modular building for the new sheriff’s office headquarters on the South End. The 2,500-square-foot building will be purchased from the Arlington Police Department for $201,000 and set up on the site of the old Freeland fire station in October. Deputies hope to move in before the end of the year.

And that’s good news for Sheriff Mike Hawley.

“We are very excited about the move. It is double the space we have now and much more user friendly,” Hawley said.

“Our current office space is not adequate,” he said.

“The location is better for the public, too, because it is much more visible and centrally located,” Hawley added.

Hawley said he toured the new building in Arlington.

“It’s set up for law enforcement. It even has a holding cell,” Hawley said.

The South Precinct is currently tucked in a shared office space in a strip mall off Main Street. Rent is about $2,000 per month.

Island County Public Works purchased the old Freeland fire station from Fire District 3 last year for $119,000. The county planned to remodel the old two-story structure — which is basically nothing more than a garage with space for two fire engines on the main floor and a large dilapidated open meeting/office room on the second floor. Plumbing and electrical are not up to current code requirements, but the septic system is adequate for the new office. The old building, called Station 31, served as the Freeland fire station from 1963 to 2002.

When county officials determined it was too expensive to remodel, they started researching other options.

“That’s when we heard about the Arlington headquarters,” Maxfield said.

The four-year-old modular building has been used by the police department in Arlington.

“It is a modern commercial building and its layout is appropriate for a use as a police station,” said Gwenn Maxfield, assistant director of Island County Public Works. “There is also space to expand. It is extremely functional.”

“The old fire station will be torn down sometime in the next week or so,” Maxfield said. “We are just waiting for the permit to be issued.”

At first county officials hoped to remodel the old fire station, but after consulting with architects, the county found it would be too expensive to make it usable. The cost of a remodel had been estimated at $450,000.

The idea to move the sheriff’s precinct was first hatched in June 2003 when fire district commissioners offered to lease the old station to the sheriff’s office for its South Precinct. A new fire station on Cameron Road in Freeland was completed in 2002.

Fire District 3 is building a new fire station in Langley on property they will share with Island Transit on Camano Avenue, across from the Island County Fairgrounds.

Two other mothballed stations, at Saratoga and Bush Point, were sold to private parties.

Gayle Saran can be reached at 221-5300 or gsaran@southwhidbeyrecord.com.