Steamboat Springs — The city of Steamboat Springs and Routt County have taken another step toward realizing a shared public safety facility in west Steamboat.

Both governments have formed a working group to further explore the prospect of building the facility, which would include a new police station next to the Routt County Jail.

The group includes Routt County Commissioner Cari Hermacinski, County Manager Tom Sullivan, County Facilities Director Tim Winter, Routt County Sheriff Garrett Wiggins, acting City Manager Anne Small, interim Police Chief Jerry DeLong and Steamboat City Council members Walter Magill and Scott Ford.

The new group will have its first meeting at 1 p.m. Wednesday in the commissioners hearing room.

Sullivan said one of the group’s first tasks will be to gauge exactly how much space the city and the county need for their emergency services and how that space might be shared in the new facility.

“The commissioners came to a conclusion there could be a positive cost benefit to working with the city on this, especially for those components (where) we’d be sharing space,” Sullivan said. “We definitely have enough room over there” for a shared facility.

Sullivan added that part of the discussion will focus on whether the county should move its communications center to the bottom floor of the Routt County Justice Center next door to its existing home next to the jail.

The shared public safety facility was the top recommendation of a citizens committee the Steamboat Springs City Council formed to plan for a new police station.

To reach Scott Franz, call 970-871-4210, email scottfranz@SteamboatToday.com or follow him on Twitter @ScottFranz10