Hanford Police Department infested with termites

HANFORD, Calif. (KFSN) -- The Hanford Police Department has a serious pest problem and it's going to be a headache to fix.

Captain Karl Anderson said he's never seen anything like it before.

"Like you turn on the faucet and it was just piling up."

A termite infestation has taken over the Hanford Police Department. It was discovered last week during the remodeling of a room in the building's basement.

"As part of that construction, we found a large mass of termite infestation in one of the offices when we started taking the wall apart. Literally termite dust starting pouring out. Turn on a spigot and instead of water it was termite, it was pouring out of the ground just making mounds," said Anderson.

The same problem was found in one room which will eventually be remodeled to store equipment.

There's also mold and rotting wood.

Anderson said the termites are inside every wall, and there's no telling how long they've been there.

To get rid of them, he said a pest control company will have to put a tent over the entire building. And that means they'll likely have to temporarily remove their 40-foot communications tower.

Anderson said, "So we're going to have to determine a secondary site to operate our dispatch center out of, and figure out a way for them to connect to an antenna so they can still broadcast over our radio channel."

But Anderson said public safety won't be affected at all because there won't be any gap during the transition-- which could take at least a week.

Meanwhile, records and patrol units will make due in different off-site spaces. But the department is used to that. They've long been working with limited space in a 45-year-old building that was designed to last 20 that is now truly starting to show its age.

But they will fix it, and when they do, they still expect to be able to use the building for another 10 years.

Hanford police hope Measure K in Kings County will help them start the process of financing a new police department.

While the tent is up, officers will be patrolling the building 24-7, in the front and back.