PORT CLINTON -- U.S. Customs and Border Protection has broken ground near Port Clinton for a $25 million Sandusky Bay Station that for the first time in the United States will house all three branches of the agency in the same building.

"It's been a long-standing goal to get to this point," said Matt Donaldson, Assistant Chief Patrol Agent for Detroit's Border Patrol sector. "This is the model for the way we want to do business in the future."

The new site marks one of the final stages of a drawn-out synchronization within the agency, whose three branches all work for the same goal -- preventing terrorism and contraband across borders -- but operated differently in numerous areas, including choosing firearms or methods of nonlethal force, and even internally with privacy statements in department e-mails.

Since Customs and Border Protection was formed in 2003 through the Department of Homeland Security, its three branches -- the Border Patrol, Office of Field Operations, and the Office of Air and Marine -- have gradually synchronized inner workings, to where the agencies can easily be housed in the same building without any serious differences in policy.

Currently, the three branches are miles apart within Sandusky, and it was a routine occurrence for one to wait for another when asking for assistance.

Each branch also has its own conference, locker, and briefing rooms that Mr. Donaldson says are not used enough to warrant three different sites. But at the new station, which is to open in 2012 on State Rt. 53 in Portage Township, roughly 95 personnel from across the three branches will share the same facilities, saving time and money.

"It makes absolute operational sense to do something like this," said Brian Bell, a Chicago-based Customs and Border Protection spokesman. "The decision to house them under one roof took no time at all."

While the branches of Field Operations, Border Patrol, and the Air and Marine are all dedicated to preventing terrorism, they differ in their regions of enforcement and equipment.

The first handles traffic at legitimate ports, while the second handles traffic in between those ports. The Air and Marine can assist both with naval vessels or aircraft.

The Air and Marine uses SAFE boats during water procedures, which are 33 or 38-foot watercraft developed for marine patrol. The Border Patrol use smaller versions of the SAFE boat, 25 and 27-foot vessels that are mostly used on rivers.

Officials chose Port Clinton because of its high volume of recreational boating between the United States and Canada, according to Mr. Bell.

"[Port Clinton] poses a risk because boats can travel to and from the island," Mr. Bell said. "Someone on a boat with harmful intent can easily mingle with pleasure boaters."

Mr. Bell also said Port Clinton's location near the middle of the North Ohio border made it ideal for a combined site.

Though he said there are no formal plans in the Great Lakes region to unite other branches, Mr. Bell added that border officials will likely repeat the model.

There are more than 150 Border Protection offices in the United States.

The new site manages its largest presence at the northern border in a decade -- 2,200 Border Patrol agents, or seven times the number before 9/11, according to a department news release about the new project. Among all three branches, 3,800 personnel oversee the northern border.

The increases come with a strengthened process for entering the United States for boaters -- where it once took only a drivers' license, it now takes a passport.

Contact Daniel Bethencourt at: dbethencourt@theblade.com or 419-724-6050.

First Published June 10, 2011, 6:15 a.m.