Demolition of former police headquarters bittersweet for some

The claw of a Komatsu excavator toppled a chunk of the old Norwalk Police Department in Mathews Park on West Avenue Thursday afternoon, marking the beginning of the end for what used to be the center of operations for Norwalk's police force.

Police moved into the modernized 1 Monroe St. headquarters in 2005, rendering the old building obsolete.

"It's going to be several weeks to knock this down and get the material cleaned up," Norwalk Mayor Richard Moccia said after taking a ceremonial swipe at the old police department with a sledgehammer. "It's not going to be a very sexy space to begin with."

By June the entire space where the building now stands will be replaced with green space, Moccia said. A $25,000 grant from the Department of Environmental Protection will aid the process.

Razing the building and the addition of grass, plantings and benches will help unify Mathews Park, naturally linking the spaces shared by Stepping Stones Museum for Children and the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum, Moccia said.

"This whole place will get cleaned up," said Director of Recreation and Parks Michael Mocciae. "It's really going to be a nice, different look."

Norwalk's Building and Facilities Manager Alan Lo said environmental remediation of the property has already taken place. Asbestos in the insulation and flooring tiles, lead from the firing range and thermostats containing mercury needed to be removed before demolition of the building could begin, he said. Workers will crush the demolished concrete and separate building parts for recycling before backfilling the land, adding topsoil and seeding it, he said.

In addition to members of the public, police officers and local officials standing behind yellow caution tape, Police Chief Harry Rilling was on hand for the occasion and shared some of his memories.

The building was built in 1959 and originally housed 118 officers, Rilling said. A bomb detonated inside in the 1960s, before he joined the force in 1971.

"It was a building that was certainly state-of-the-art at the time," he said. "But we outgrew it. There were police officers in there 24-hours-a-day, seven days a week, so it got about three times the use of a normal building."

Rilling said he served in the patrol, detective, and narcotics divisions when the force was still stationed at the West Avenue location. He worked his way up to deputy chief while there.

The building housed a courtroom, judges' chambers, shooting range in the basement and communications center, Rilling remembered. But there was a time when it didn't have security cameras.

"We had to walk the prisoners up the back steps," he said. "Sometimes it got icy. The old building was open to the public but not as secure. The new building is open to the public and is very secure."

Officer Carlton Giles said he spent 26 years of his career at the old PD.

"This is a bittersweet moment," he said. "There are a lot of memories."