LONE TREE, Colo. On Tuesday, the city of Lone Tree cut the ribbon on its latest step in ensuring it grows responsibly, with its new Justice Center. The facility opens to the public on Monday, but it'll be home to the city's Mun icipal Court and Police Department."This justice center continues to affirm that commitment from city councils today and our former city councils that have made the decisions to position us well for the bright future we have ahead," Lone Tree Mayor Marissa Harmon told Denver7's Douglas County Reporter Tyler Melito.Harmon shared her belief that this new facility will be a space for police officers to unwind and recharge."I think a lot of us don't think about is what day-to-day life looks like for our police officers and the men and women that work in this building-they have very challenging days, stressful days, of course, days of celebration," Harmon said. "There is a lot of hard that happens inside these walls and outside of them. So, giving them a place that they are proud of, that they feel comfortable in, and that is particularly made for them is of utmost importance for our community within the city of Lone Tree."She added that she hopes the community looks forward to the new space as well."We want to make sure that residents are excited," Harmon said. "We built this for them. We built this new justice center for the city of Lone Tree, our residents, our visitors, and our future."Lone Tree Police Chief Kirk Wilson told Melito this space has been a long time coming for the department, which he has been leading for almost a decade."The police department's been around now for we've just been here for 20 years, this is our 21st year, and so a lot of departments go through these little kind of growth times where they're working out of office buildings and trailers, and and that's pretty common in smaller smaller cities," Wilson said. "So I think to be able to build a state-of-the-art building in 20 years of becoming a police department is pretty incredible."Wilson outlined some his favorite space in the more than 37,000-square-foot facility are the community spaces, as well as the gym for officers."The community EOC [Emergency Operations Center] room, where we can set up an emergency operations center," Wilson said. "We can do training on site that we can use and actually you have enough room for everybody to get in there and do training. That gym's a fantastic gym. It's a, I think if nothing else says you're valued, it's investing in them to have a place like that where they can go work out, and and stay fit and be ready for their job."And he is confident this new space will be a tool in recruitment and retention as he notes other departments nationwide are having difficulty hiring."It's going to help recruit and retain people when you have a great place to work, where you feel valued, where you have a good culture, which is something we strive to have," Wilson said.Wilson is also a firm believer that the new building will allow the department and city to continue to match the overall growth in Lone Tree, and he believes community support is crucial for Lone Tree PD."I think if we learned anything in 2020, you can't police unless you got your citizens' cooperation," Wilson said. "I think the last survey we had, which is crazy, we had like a 92% approval rating from the citizens. I mean, you don't really see that. You know, most police departments are happy to get 51% if they can get that. So having a high 90% approval rating, and that all comes down to you know fast responses, responding to everything." ...read more read less