At the past two Washington City Council retreats, a police station for the city was identified as a top priority.

The city’s budget for fiscal year 2017-2018, which takes effect July 1, continues to set aside funding for the new facility. The site for the new police station has yet to be decided, though city officials continue to search for a suitable location.

To help pay for that new facility, the city has been setting aside money each year in a public safety capital reserve fund. At its retreat in February, the City Council, through consensus, decided to use a three-step plan for building a new police station — find a good site, design the facility and find the money to pay for the city. Currently, the city has $1.24 million set aside for the new facility.

The 2017-2018 city budget, as recommended by City Manager Bobby Roberson, transfers $166,970 from the general fund to the public safety capital reserve fund, the same amount transferred in the current budget. Roberson recommended increasing the police station capital fund from $1,241,854 in the current fiscal year budget to $1,665,562 in the upcoming budget, an increase of $423,708.

For several years, the city has been setting aside part of its general-fund revenues into a reserve fund to help pay for capital expenditures such as building a new police station. Of the city’s property-tax rate of 50 cents per $100 valuation, just under two cents of that rate is designated for the city’s public safety capital reserve.

For at least 15 years, city officials have wrestled with building a new police station, building a new fire station to replace the headquarters station on North Market Street or a facility that would house both services.

At the council’s retreat in February, Mayor Mac Hodges said the city made a “fair” offer to the owner of the former Dr Pepper plant site on West Third Street, one of the three sites the city identified as a possible location for a new police station, but the owner came back with a counter-offer that’s too high.

That site, bounded by U.S. Highway 17 business and West Second, West Third, Van Norden streets, once housed a Dr Pepper bottling plant and manufacture gas plant, which left coal-tar deposits — polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, benzene and toluene —at the site. In 2007, Progress Energy and the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources worked together on a project to remove those deposits from the site.

In June 2016, the former Family Dollar site at the intersection of North Market and Third Street (where Tumble B Gym is located) and the city-owned land at the northeast corner of the intersection of East Fifth and North Bonner streets were identified as possible sites, too.

Since then, other possible sites for the new police station have been identified, including property at the intersection of West Fifth Street (U.S. Highway 264) and U.S. Highway 17 Business near King Chicken.

At a public meeting in April, five architectural design teams, comprised of students at East Carolina University and Pitt Community College, presented the results of their three-month Capstone projects at the Washington Civic Center.

The design teams were given guidelines in advance, and presented options for one- to two-story structures in potential locations, such as the corner of Third and North Market streets and the corner of West Third and Bridge streets. Officials with Police and Fire Services met with the student teams at least once a week.

The presentation boards showed in-depth floor plans, with potential building materials, 3-D models and ways to mirror the architecture of other buildings in Washington.

Once a site has been chosen, the students’ plans will be reviewed by a professional architectural firm, according to city officials. A team of architects and designers will develop a more-detailed plan for the new police station.

Daily News reporter Caroline Hudson contributed to this story.