The new police headquarters is ready to leave the drawing board and head for reality.

The Borough Council is preparing to solicit bids for the $4.8 million project designed by architectural firm Arcari-Iovino of Little Ferry that will become the new Tenafly Police Department building. The council approved a bond ordinance in November to fund the project. They are hoping to break ground in April.

The brick headquarters will be situated across the borough driveway and will be visible from Riveredge Road. The plans account for a special, state Department of Corrections-approved layout for holding prisoners, housing the entire police force and providing necessary parking. In addition, the building is planned to have future "green" capabilities, including a place for solar panels on the southward-facing roof.

The plans have remained substantially the same as first proposed by the architect several months ago, according to officials.

At its Jan. 15 meeting, the council focused on avoiding the mistakes with previous municipal construction projects – in particular, they referred to the expansion project for borough hall that resulted in years of litigation and "a couple million dollars" in legal fees.

"We got screwed a bunch of years ago," Lattif said.

The council got assurances from Anthony Iovino, lead architect, that his firm would be overseeing the single general contractor on the project – and that similar problems with multiple contractors and "finger pointing" would not occur again. Arcari-Iovino was the firm that was responsible for the most recent library addition, as well as the Alliene S.D. Johnson Garden Room building in Davis-Johnson Park.

Officials were confident with those kinds of accomplishments.

"I think this is an excellent firm," said Mayor Peter Rustin.