In New Britain, Connecticut, Mayor Timothy Stewart has a plan for revitalizing downtown, and it starts with tackling the asbestos-laden police station. He hopes to break ground on a new police station in 2010.

“If you have ever been in that building it will take you five minutes to realize it needs to come down,” Stewart said of the current police station building. “It’s filled with asbestos and the furnaces need replacing. It’s in extreme need of repair.”

Asbestos is a material once commonly used in fireproofing materials and insulation. It is now known that exposure to even a small amount of this material can lead to serious health problems, including the rare form of cancer known as mesothelioma. This cancer may take decades to develop, but can kill within months of being diagnosed.

Once the asbestos-laden police station has been replaced with a new facility, Stewart says that he hopes to be able to finance a new building near the police station that will house retail and commercial spaces, as well as a higher education facility on the upper levels. “We’re not going to do it overnight, it took a long time to kill things here, it will take a while to build it back,” Stewart said.

Stewart also took the time to speak with a group of senior citizens to help them maximize all the services available to them. “I think it was good,” said veteran Leonard Schaponis. “I think it’s excellent he came to talk to us.”

Stewart made sure to extol the virtues of the city’s Dial-A-Ride program.

“The program has been a real success,” Stewart said of Dial-A-Ride. “We can take you to the supermarket, to the doctor and even if you want to go to the doctor we can handle that with the additional vehicle we’re expected to add because we’re going to be able to do more things.”

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