The Bowling Green Police Department took two more steps toward expansion Tuesday night as the city commission voted to acquire more land next to the current building. Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the purchase, for $100,000, of the house and land at 939 Kentucky St. from the estate of Edna Broderick. It is the third piece of land the city has bought recently in the block bounded by Kentucky and Adams streets and East 10th and Main avenues. The city plans to buy the entire block, perhaps during the next year, City Manager Chuck Coates said. The commission went into closed session briefly and emerged to announce that it was ordering the condemnation of 122 E. 10th Ave., a vacant lot owned by Dennis and Mary Ann Payne, for the expansion of the police department. Several attempts to buy the property have failed, according to the approved municipal order. Attempts to contact the Paynes were unsuccessful. The current police headquarters was built in 1998 for $4 million, but is less elaborate than the original plan. It was scaled back to save money, but the city refinanced its bond issue to come up with an additional $750,000 to buy the rest of the property. The commission also agreed to let Housing and Community Development Director Richard Rector negotiate the remaining deals. Now that weve purchased three parcels, weve decided to authorize Richard (Rector) to purchase more parcels on behalf of the city, Coates said. The city commission would still have final say on acquisitions. In other business, the commission:Voted unanimously on the first reading to end the citys 2000 interlocal agreement with Warren County to form a joint Critical Response Team to handle major emergencies. City police and the Warren County Sheriffs Office each trained officers to head the response team, but two trained sheriffs deputies recently resigned and there are no plans to train replacements, so to avoid assuming the entire cost of training, the city voted to end the agreement. Obviously we will continue to train our department to respond to such emergencies within the city limits, Coates said. Applauded Linda Taylor Lee, retiring from the street department after 28 years; and presented the first in a series of awards named in her honor to Bobby Phelps, operations division manager in public works. Nominees for the Linda Taylor Lee Service To Area Residents (STAR) award were David Bragg, a city police detective, for aiding an elderly woman victimized by a swindler; Esther Mullins, from the finance department, for efficiently answering other departments purchase orders; Alex Colovos, a building inspector and projects coordinator, for redesigning a computer program to centralize complaints and code enforcement information; and Phelps, for improving morale and training and reducing complaints in his department. Unanimously approved leasing the now-closed T.C. Cherry Pool to Warren County, which plans to renovate it and enclose the pool in an inflatable dome. Heard from Commissioner Joe Denning that the 39th annual Par Makers golf tournament will be held at Hartland Golf Course this weekend. In the past, it has attracted more than 200 players from across the country. Presented Benjamin Bussey, leader of Boy Scout Troop 216, with a plaque for leading his troop to clean up Hobson Grove disc golf course in 140 hours of work. Agreed to the first reading of revisions to the City Code of Ordinances based on suggestions from the recent Traffic Management Study. The changes are needed in part to provide comprehensible guidelines for contractors, City Engineer Jeff Lashlee said. Well be doing more of this as time goes on, Coates said. The Code of Ordinances is a living document. He noted that the revision eliminated the antique prohibition on watering livestock on city streets.