Apex public safety is moving on up — or at least to new and expanded facilities in the coming year.

This summer town officials hope to begin work on two expansion projects — an $8 million two-story addition to the town’s police station, and a new $2 million public safety station off N.C. 55.

An installment purchase plan will finance both projects. It will take about 15 years to pay off the debt, said Assistant Town Manager Mike Wilson.

The police addition will be about 34,000 square feet of space that will include meeting and training areas and additional storage space for records and equipment, said Police Chief Jack Lewis.

The addition’s brick veneer will match the current 1970s building at 205 Saunders St. in the heart of downtown, which once housed Apex Town Hall facilities as well.

The addition in space is sorely needed, said Lewis, who noted that the force’s approximate 50 officers must squeeze into just 14,000 square feet in the current building.

“That’s pretty tough,” Smith said, adding that five of his investigators are working in a 16-by-18 square-foot space.

When the addition’s construction starts, the police force will move to temporary modular quarters across the road. Wilson said the addition should be finished by the end of 2009.

The new Public Safety Station 4 will have a similar timeline for starting but could be completed six months earlier, in the summer of 2009.

Wilson said the station — which will have fire, EMS and police components — will be south of U.S. 1 off N.C. 55.

The town currently has three fire stations. This will be the town’s first station combining all three public safety components.

The combination of services and location for the new station was fueled due to the high demand for services in that part of town. Large-scale residential and commercial projects are sprouting up all through the area.

While the police addition will not require any new staff, the new public safety station has meant that six new fire department positions have been listed in the fiscal year 2009 budget, Wilson said.