At first glance upon entering the Troy Police Station, space doesn’t seem to be an issue.

But just walk into the detectives’ offices or the evidence room, and thoughts might change, said Troy Police Chief Anthony Everage.

With records overflowing from their boxes, evidence crammed onto shelves and multiple employees sharing small offices, Troy Police will be relieved to find more space in their newest addition.

In the last Troy City Council meeting, the city announced its purchase of the building that once housed Liberty National Insurance across from the police station on Elm Street.

Though times may not be the best economically, Mayor Jimmy Lunsford said he feels this purchase was a good one to make.

“We’ve been concerned about space for quite some time,” Lunsford said. “It’s a real solid building, and we felt like it would be something that would help us alleviate overcrowding and help future growth.”

And at the same time, Everage said hard economic times have increased their need for more space.

“The thing we see with our economy is this is going to be necessary,” Everage said. “If the economy causes crime to continue to increase, which we think it will, we’re going to need more room.”

Lunsford said the city purchased the building for $250,000, $30,000 less than the appraised value.

The city will issue a bond the same time it begins the library construction project to pay for the purchase.

With the new building, Everage said the department will be able to expand without building an entire new facility.

“There’s really no where else around here we can grow to,” Everage said.

Everage said the only other place to expand near the area, would be in the parking lot. But, as it is now, parking is already limited at the station.

He said they won’t fill all the space in the new building all at once, but the first area he will move is the narcotics officers.

“If our detectives are working on a case, and they need a centralized place to sit down and discuss stuff that is confidential in nature, they have no place to do that,” Everage said. “It will also give us room to store some additional evidence.”

Everage said he has no timetable on when the department will begin moving to the new building, but they are working now to wire the building and make it ready for the move.