OVIEDO, Fla. — Thursday night, citizens of Oviedo had the chance to learn about a referendum coming up on their ballots this November concerning a new building for the police department. 

The police chief, along with city council members and staff, were hand to answer questions. 

"We deserve to give our police department what they need to do their jobs and they have needs right now," Oviedo Deputy Mayor Jeff Boddiford told Spectrum News.

The current building opened in May 1990, and they originally shared it with the fire department.

In 2016, the fire department moved out, but Chief of Police Dale Coleman says they’ve outgrown the whole building and need more space.

He says the building is not equipped for things they didn’t do 30 years ago, like active shooter drills and virtual reality training. He believes that having a new 47,000-square-foot building would help them to serve the growing community in new and better ways.

“It allows us to have a community room that will hold approximately around 50 people... and other hands on and dynamic training where you need the height, width and the space,” Coleman said. “It would allow us to have a weight room for officer wellness, that is what is in the news a lot about officers having PTSD and needing a way to release."

Larry Sarafin is a former Oviedo police officer, and thinks that it's time for a new home for the police department. 

"They stayed up on the technology, and they went out and purchased it, the only thing I wish they had over there was a decent gym for the guys to work out," he said.

In addition, the training room in the existing building is too small, which means that officers sometimes have to train outside in the bus lot. 

The new building is projected to cost about $47 million dollars, but they already have $11.4 million that was approved by the city back in 2016 for a new building that was never built.

Coleman hopes that many citizens show up tomorrow to learn more about why this is so needed. 

“That is my goal, to let them see what it will do for the community. The police department is this community’s police department, we want to be as integrated with the community as we can,” he said. “We want to provide services to the community that we currently can not, we want to be able to meet the needs of whatever comes our way.”

Coleman said he’ll even give tours of the current building to anyone who wants to see it.

On Nov. 7, the city will ask voters to fund roughly $35.5 million to build a new facility behind city hall.