Wednesday, January 1, 2003
|
Wednesday, January 1, 2003 |
|
Deputies move into new jail By JOHN MUNFORD
Although it's not 100 percent complete just yet, the Fayette County Jail has been turned over to the sheriff's department so it can clean the facility and begin training its employees to handle the new facility. Fayette County consulting engineer Jim Mallett said the contractor is still completing the punch list for the facility, but it made sense to let the sheriff's department begin preparing to open up the facility. Some furniture for the facility won't be delivered until next month, but the project is "very close" to completion, Mallett said. The jail expansion will add 384 new beds to the facility and 65,820 sq. ft. of office space for the sheriff's department. The expansion was designed so another addition can be added in the future to double the jail's capacity, Mallett said. Currently, the county is contracting with Union City to house 75 prisoners. Approximately $971,000 will be spent to outfit the new jail, covering everything from audiovisual equipment to furniture. The county's new courthouse, which will be connected to the new jail facility for the transportation of prisoner to court proceedings, is still scheduled to be complete at the end of February. "We had the rainiest October in the history of Georgia and our contractor did a super job of keeping up with all the rain we had," Mallett said. The contractor was especially efficient on getting the paving work done, which requires a dry surface to complete, Mallett noted. "It has to be dry, but we did it," he said. "Things are looking pretty good right now." Similar to the jail layout, the courthouse was designed with future growth in mind as the third floor will remain unfinished but at the ready for future growth when more courtroom space is needed, Mallett added. The entire three-floor facility is approximately 150,000 sq. ft., Mallett said. The county also plans to refurbish the current courthouse annex for the sheriff's department.
|
||