PERRIS -- Guy Kestell has the excitement of a kid proudly building a new treehouse for himself and all his friends as he walks through the new Perris Sheriff's Station still under construction.

Five and a half years ago, when the Riverside County sheriff's captain took over command of the Perris Sheriff's Station, he made a commitment to get a new one built. Deputies assigned to the station serve a more than 200-square-mile area including the communities of Menifee and Sun City, as well as the contract cities of Canyon Lake and Perris.

"In my wildest dreams I never thought it would be as nice as this," Kestell said recently while walking through the nearly ready new station.

"I couldn't be happier about how this has turned out," he said, pointing out this feature and that room, while commenting on detail after detail.

"A lot of thought and work went into the planning for this," he said.

The new 45,000-square-foot station is part of a 17-acre "campus" of much-needed county buildings at Perris Boulevard and San Jacinto Avenue.

The $30 million project encompasses the new station, a 20,000-square-foot warehouse for evidence and property, a 10,000-square-foot forensics lab and a 25,000-square-foot family health center just a short distance from the sheriff's facility.

There's even a helipad, which Kestell proudly points out, out back near a fence bordering southbound Interstate 215.

In 1996, the Sheriff's Department took over police services when Perris disbanded its Police Department. The station sheriff's officials inherited was quickly found to be completely inadequate and run-down, so a vacant Southern California Edison service center on Fourth Street was purchased and converted into a sheriff's station.

For years, the more than 40-year-old, 15,000-square-foot building has served as a police and sheriff's station.

But soon, the 180 or so employees -- including 157 sworn deputies -- will move to what some might consider to be more in line with the Taj Mahal than the cramped quarters they've been in.

There's still a lot of work to be done, but Kestell says he hopes to be working out of the new station by July 23. The official county dedication of the new campus of buildings is scheduled for Aug. 4.

The station is being built with growth in mind, Kestell says.

Right now, the area served by the Perris station has a population of about 190,000 people, Kestell said, including about 47,000 in the city of Perris and an additional 12,000 in Canyon Lake.

Those who are served by the deputies who work at the station will now be better served by the new station, Kestell believes.

He cites the location as being more convenient and easier to find, right across from Perris City Hall and with the 215 freeway out the back door.

"It just looks more like a police station," rather than a run-down building with a drab paint job tucked away along Highway 74.

There is a community room for public meetings just off the large lobby. A far cry from the present lobby that is crowded if about four people walk through the front door.

On the far side of the building from the public entrance is the forensics lab, which crime-scene technicians currently working in Riverside will soon call home.

Pete Williams, a sheriff's supervising forensic technician who has been with the department for 21 years, said the new 14,000-square-foot forensics facility will more than double the space he and other techs have to work in.

That's important because techs are basically working on top of each other now and three more are being hired, bringing the number of techs to 13 for a roughly 2,200-square-mile area of western Riverside County, Williams said.

"Also, it may not sound like a big thing, but in our current facility we don't even have enough electrical outlets for the equipment," Williams said. That shouldn't be a problem at the Perris forensics center where the workroom walls are lined with outlets.

The forensics bureau has been in a small building in Riverside since 1991.

"We were only supposed to be here five years," Williams said.

Finally relocating the operation to Perris not only means more space, but makes it more centralized for techs to respond to crime scenes.

"There won't be such a drastic drive time, which means the time victims and officers have to wait for us will be shorter," Williams said.

Once in operation in Perris, techs will be able to do their jobs faster and get to scenes in a more timely matter, he added.

For all those who will soon be moving to the new multi-use facility, it can't get here quickly enough.

"Everyone is getting kinda antsy," Kestell said, as they see light at the end of the dark, modular tunnel they've been working in.

"A staff that's happy in their setting makes a difference," the captain added.

Contact staff writer John Hall at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2628, or jhall@californian.com.