BARNEGAT — It's been years since a prisoner slipped his handcuffs and escaped a trailer used by Barnegat police, but a new municipal complex holds the promise of preventing such a situation from ever happening again, Police Lt. Keith Germain said.

The Township Committee appropriated $15 million last week for the construction of a new municipal building and police headquarters, which the police lieutenant said has been sorely needed for more than two decades.

Germain said the current facility — barely 3,000 square feet that was originally built as a sales office for a housing development — is undersized for Barnegat's 46 officers and prisoners.

The police rely on two trailers for extra space, he said. The department even lacks bathrooms or running water on its section of the building, Germain added. Watch the video above to learn about other development projects happening around the Jersey Shore.

"In any kind of modern facility, with a proper cell block and things like running water, the arrestees are secured in a cell and we don't have to release them from that cell until they're done being processed," said Germain. "Here we go through all the trouble to secure people, to make sure they, the officers and the public are safe. And then every time they have to go the bathroom, we take them out of a secure cell, walk them through our building... outside the secure portion of our building, to where the nearest running water is, which is in a small vestibule attached to the court."

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Germain said the current setup is risky and could lead to another escape or officers getting hurt. Yet, Barnegat police have endured these conditions for more than 30 years, Germain said.

Committeeman John Novak said another visiting police force once mistakenly believed the trailers and existing conditions were the result of superstorm Sandy's devastation.

"How embarrassing that our officers have to hear that," said Novak, who serves as the five-member Township Committee's liaison to the police department. "We’ve been working out of trailers long before Sandy."

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Novak said the department also lacks locker and dressing rooms for the officers, let alone gender-divided ones.

"I am continuously and consistently in awe over the professionalism and morale that our police officers display in the face of showing up every day to a headquarters that is so lacking," he said.

Germain said it goes beyond bathrooms: witnesses and suspects need to be kept apart, juveniles and adults must be imprisoned separately, and storing weapons and evidence can be challenging.

"We get creative out of necessity, but (it's) certainly not ideal and it doesn't leave us a lot of margin for error," he said.

Mayor Albert Bille said the town is considering building a new municipal complex, including police headquarters, on the site of the current municipal parking lot. Bille said talks are preliminary and no plans have yet been designed.

Business Administrator Martin Lisella said the project would cost taxpayers about $40 per year extra in municipal taxes. The tax bill would have been higher for the project; however, other municipal debt is expiring at the same time and lowers the impact shouldered by taxpayers, he said.

Currently, municipal officials see a need for a complex containing about 26,000 to 28,000 square feet of space, Lisella said. The current municipal building contains roughly 14,000 square feet, he estimated.

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The timing of the complex project also coincides with new housing and commercial developments west of the Garden State Parkway, which Lisella said will bring $5 million to $6 million in new tax revenue into municipal coffers.

"This was the right time to do it," he said. "That (development, once complete) would take care of the bond payments."

Amanda Oglesby: @OglesbyAPP; 732-557-5701; aoglesby@gannettnj.com