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Walking into the new Grand Island/Hall County Law Enforcement Center at 111 Public Safety Center Drive is more like walking into an upscale office than a place for crime fighting.
The official dedication for the building will be next Friday.
Trendy magazines are arranged next to cushioned chairs. The decor is done in warm earth tones. Classy artwork with brass plaques hangs on the walls.
It's all part of the plan to make a comfortable, workable, inviting setting to conduct public safety.
The artwork selected was no exception.
Hall County Chief Deputy Sheriff Chris Rea said people usually come to the Law Enforcement Center because something bad has happened to them or something bad is about to happen.
He headed up a committee aimed at selecting artwork that would be noncontroversial yet interesting and inclusive of the center's many clients.
The committee decided upon a collection of historical photos.
"We first thought about law-enforcement-related pictures, but there's not that many," Rea said. "So we expanded out. It's a joint (city/county) building, so we included the area Alda, Wood River."
In the building's foyer hangs a 1907 picture of men standing next to what's believed to be the first Grand Island post office.
Rea likes the picture because of details of buildings, wooden sidewalks and a dog lying at the men's feet.
"It's really cool," he said of the historical photos.
Rea loved a picture from the Nebraska State Historical Society that showed Douglas County sheriff's deputies standing next to confiscated moonshine jugs, hops and brewery equipment. The plaque identifies the 1922 photo of a confiscated still.
He liked it so much that he bought and framed his own copy for his office.
In the public part of the Law Enforcement Center, Rea said, 15 historical photos were added to the four photos the departments already had. Most of the photos came from Stuhr Museum through the assistance of Curator of Research Karen Keehr.
Keehr pulled a number of potential photos, from which Rea and Sheriff's Department evidence technician Doug Kruse made the final picks. Kruse's brother, Jim Forbes of Texas, then enlarged the photos at no cost to the department.
Hobby Lobby matted and framed the photos, and Laser Works engraved the plaques. The total cost of the photo project was just $1,200, which was included as part of the city's overall $9 million cost for the center.
Historical photos of the Liederkranz groundbreaking, the 50th anniversary celebration of Wolbach's Department Store downtown in 1924, the 1900-era bicycle patrol of the Grand Island Police Department and an 1892 photo of Wood River are in the public hallways of the building's first floor.
Second-floor photos include the Grand Island Brewery at 306 S. Locust St. from 1898, Schimmer's Lake Cafe, the 1900 Hall County Jail and a picture of a nearly complete Hall County Courthouse.
There are even pictures of cigar manufacturing, Popcorn Pete and his early 1920s popcorn cart at Third and Locust, and several photos of Sheriff James Dunkel, who actually lay in state at the Hall County Courthouse after he was killed by a train on Jan. 10, 1912.
"He was quite a flashy guy," Rea said of Dunkel, who is often pictured with his gun at his side.
Both departments are collecting current photos and memorabilia for a time capsule that will be included in a cornerstone.
The cornerstone ceremony will precede the building's ribbon cutting and dedication at 2 p.m. Friday.
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