Brookland, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – Aug. 1, 2025 – Brookland residents are seeing progress on the new Brookland Municipal Building, as crews continue to work on phase one of the facility.
Brookland Mayor Kenneth Jones said the project, which was announced in April 2024, began phase one of its construction around July 1. This phase focuses on providing a new 4,562 square foot police station for the town.
Phase two of the project will include the new city hall and council room, as well as several new offices. When complete, the new facility will be over 7,400 square feet and is expected to cost $2 million. It will be located on the west side of the Whitten Creek Apartments.
“Everything will be out there when it’s completed,” Jones said.
According to Jones, the present police department is an old two-stall service station built in the late ’30s or early ’40s. The building was donated to the city in 2006 and then turned into the current police department. The size of the force has also grown, Jones said, with there now being 11 full-time, four part-time, and three school resource officers. When he became mayor in 2021, there were only two full-time and one part-time officer, he said.
“It has really been too small for several years now, but we are finally getting to move forward and getting them something where they can work and not have to be working over each other,” he said.
Brookland Police Chief John Moore also noted the lack of space as well as the department’s need for a new location.
“We are very excited to have the new building,” he said. “The current building we’re in is very small and there’s just no room; there’s no office space. The new building is going to mean that people can come in. We’ll have an area to sit and interview people and talk to people. Currently, the situation we’re in, we don’t have that. So, we’re just very excited to have that type of facility.”
According to Moore, the current location sits right next to a busy railroad track.
“It’s so hard to conduct business when trains are that close, constantly going back and forth,” Moore said. “When you’re trying to talk to somebody about maybe the worst day of their life and you’ve got trains constantly going by, it’s just such a distraction. So, we’re very excited about it. It’s just going to be such a better location for us.”
Although construction was delayed due to significant rains in spring, Jones said crews have already made a lot of progress. The project was originally scheduled to be completed by December 2025; however, it is now scheduled for completion in 2026, around February or March.
“They’ve got the flooring and footing and they’re going up on the walls, but right now it’s dry and I don’t know how they’re doing all the work that they’re getting done in the heat, but it’s beginning to look like a building out there now,” he said.