After authorizing another $30,000 on a site assessment, the Bainbridge Island City Council has decided to postpone a decision on whether the city should join up with the Bainbridge Island Fire Department to build a co-located police/fire station.

On a 4-3 vote Tuesday, the council decided to continue the discussion at its next study session to give the public more chance to weigh in.

The delay, though, means the city won’t meet an Oct. 1 deadline set by the fire department.

“I am very sensitive to the fact that the fire department has some timelines that they would like to meet,” said Councilman Val Tollefson.

“But I am very reluctant to allow us to rush into a decision to accommodate their needs without having fully faced the public on this.”

Fire commissioners sent a letter to the city council in mid-August that asked for a council decision by Oct. 1 so the fire department could pursue a bond measure at the ballot box in February. Bainbridge fire officials have been talking for months about replacing their headquarters facility on Madison Avenue near Highway 305, replacing the south end station, and making improvements to the department’s north end fire hall on Phelps Road.

Bainbridge officials have also been considering replacing the city’s current police facility on Winslow Way, a former fire hall, with a new building. Four options are under consideration:

Building a police station at a location south of city hall;

Building a police station at a location north of city hall;

Building the facility at the fire department’s location for Station 21 on Madison Avenue; and

Building the facility at the fire department’s location on fire department property near Station 21.

While a centrally-located police station is the top choice for city officials, the assessment made a case for a combined fire-police facility. Both locations near city hall are functional and could be combined with the courthouse, Mackenzie consultants said.

They will, however, require coordination with the adjacent businesses.

The costs may also be higher since the sites’ dense location will require significant grading and two-story accommodations.

According to the consultant firm’s study on a dual facility, a combined police department and fire station would save taxpayers approximately $2.3 million, not including land costs.

As if the assessment did not tug at both sides already, the council received more than one bit of advice Tuesday.

A co-located police station and city hall, Jeff Humphreys of Mackenzie said, is common for large cities but not so much for smaller communities like Bainbridge.

“There’s not a strong need to have a police facility close by the city hall,” Humphreys said.

“If there is a co-located function it is more of a, potentially, courts and police,” he said.

Assistant City Manager Morgan Smith said that Winslow’s density validates the need for a centrally-located police station, though.

“We have about 30 percent of our population in Winslow today,” Smith said.

“What this shows is that there’s concentration of incidents in that area, and that there’s a pretty even distribution of calls that are made to locations throughout the island,” she said.

City Manager Doug Schulze added that there are only a handful of cities in Kitsap and King Counties that do not have a centrally-located police station.

While some on the council suggested postponing a decision for more citizen input, others said public opinion was gathered when the fire department distributed a community survey more than two months ago.

The poll found 72 percent of respondents favored a joint police/fire building, and the support climbed to 87 percent when respondents were told a combined facility would reduce construction, operating and maintenance costs.

The survey also found that 73 percent of those polled favored the bond measure, which would pay for the replacement of Station 21 on Madison Avenue, the site being considered for a combined fire/police station.

“I think we’ve had a lot of community input, and I believe that this time when we have that community input you’re going to have two camps on either side and it’s eventually going to come back to us,” Bonkowski said.

“It’s a management decision that we have to stick with a long time,” he said.

Bonkowski emphasized that co-managing with another agency could result in one becoming a “tenant” and urged the council to consider this when making a vote on whether to co-locate with the fire department.

In a 4-3 vote Tuesday, the council decided to delay a decision until they could have further talks and more public input on which way to go.

Council members Blair, Tollefson, Roger Townsend and David Ward voted to push back a decision, while Bonkowski, Sarah Blossom and Wayne Roth voted against the delay.

While the conversation had seemingly ended, the fate of the new Bainbridge police station took an unexpected twist shortly after the council’s vote to delay.

In a separate vote, the council asked staff to look into the location of a new shopping/commercial project currently under construction at the High School Road and Highway 305 intersection.

Visconsi, an Ohio-based developer, has cleared the property as construction gets underway for a new shopping center that will include a new bank, drug store, restaurants and other businesses.

Council members asked Schulze to send an inquiry to Visconsi to see what the leasing options are for putting the city’s police station there.

While no one on the council said that idea was the best choice of possible locations — spots north and south of city hall, as well as at the fire department’s Madison Avenue station have been examined — some indicated the community should be made aware of any options to lease space in the new development.