It’s good to hear that Lawrence city commissioners are willing to look at new options for meeting the police department’s facility needs.

Rather than simply look at a new location for the same building that was part of the plan rejected by voters in November, commissioners said recently they would consider remodeling an existing building for use as a police headquarters. One such proposal is likely to involve the former Riverfront Mall building, which is owned by members of the Simons family who also own the Journal-World, and other sites also might be worthy of consideration.

It’s understandable that police officials would like to have a new building designed to their specifications, but retrofitting an existing structure may be a more economical way to meet the department’s needs. Faced with the failure of a sales tax increase last November, city officials are looking for different ways to finance the police facility, hopefully without a significant tax increase. A thrifty approach to the local project could be even more important to local taxpayers if the state imposes large tax increases to fill its budget gap.

Using an existing structure could require some compromise on the part of police officials, but the possibility of remodeling a well-located building that meets the department’s access and square footage needs deserves consideration. Some commissioners are eager to include a police facility in next year’s budget plan, but meeting that deadline is less important than taking the time to re-examine the project and consider more economical alternatives.

The idea of using an existing building already has drawn criticism from proponents of the previous Vote Yes campaign for the police headquarters sales tax. That’s understandable, but city commissioners owe it to taxpayers to back up and look at new options before they make a final decision on how to proceed on a new police facility.