After officially moving to their new building on East Front Street in late November, the Buchanan Police Department held a grand opening Wednesday in partnership with the city’s chamber of commerce.

The department, now located in the Edgewater Bank building, had been operating out of the historic Ross-Sanders Home on West Front Street since 1948.

city manager and police chief, Bill Marx, said the city hopes to renovate the Ross-Sanders Home, which was originally built in 1853 as a single home.

“It has a significant heritage and is a historic treasure for the city of Buchanan,” he said. “We have an open canvas to rehabilitate and restore it. There will be a lot of conversations about it in the near future.”

The city purchased its new building for $210,000 and is leasing a portion of it back to Edgewater Bank. Marx said the lease would pay for most of the department’s monthly operating expenses.

The police department occupies roughly 75 percent of the space.

Renovations included:

• Installing a decontamination shower

• Building an interview room

• Wiring the building for the IT network and phones

• Establishing electronic locks

• Installing a lobby window

• Installing modular units for the officer’s work stations

“Other than that it was fairly limited and we did a lot of that work with the sweat equity invested by the officers themselves — both on the clock and off the clock — and by the skills of our department of public works people,” said Marx, adding that the renovation budget was $27,000. “Everyone should be commended for their work.”

The bank also did renovation work.

The structure has two levels: a basement and main floor. The bank is located on the far east side of the main level, while the police department occupies the rest of the main floor and basement.

Marx said he is pleased with the new work space.

“It is more representative of a modern police department,” he said.