BEVERLY — Dispatchers at the Beverly Police Department moved out of a temporary trailer and back into the station, now that renovations to the communications center are complete.

With wider hallways, wiring in the walls instead of on the floor, a new console, better communications technology and a large flat-screen security monitoring television mounted on the wall, the improvements take the aging dispatch center from inadequate to acceptable — but by no means plush.

For example, one of the innovations is a series of new wall outlets so officers can charge their radios and flashlights at the station, instead of having to take them home.

"People refer to it as a new station, but it's really a renovated dispatch area," police spokesman John McCarthy said.

Dispatchers moved into a small trailer in the parking lot for about three months while workers from the city's public service department did most of the repairs. The $230,000 fix-up was bankrolled by a $114,565 state grant that the city agreed to match, and it's the first time the station has undergone major renovations since it was built in 1935. As an annex to City Hall, it was meant to accommodate 12 officers. Now 74 people work in the same space.

"The facility is still small," McCarthy said. Police don't want to give anyone the impression these repairs replace the need for a new station. They do, however, make life a little easier for both employees and customers.

"The whole goal is to provide good services to the citizens of Beverly, and this is just one step forward," McCarthy said.

Detective Dave Richardson, who coordinated much of the project, said the grant paid for gutting the section of the building and rebuilding it to include a waiting room by the front window, wider hallways all around, a separate window to the records department for better access, and an interview room so people have more privacy at the station.

Cameras on the outside and inside of the building and keypads on rooms that require authorization to enter will increase security. Communications technology between the dispatch center and cruisers also got an upgrade, as did the center's ventilation system, lighting and insulation, via energy-efficient windows.