New HCSO facility nearing completion

The Holmes County Sheriffâ€™s Office will soon have a new home as construction and refurbishment of the old Holmes County Agriculture Center is well underway.

The project started at the beginning of the year after the county was awarded $4.3 million in appropriations from the state. HCSO was given a budget of $750,000 to demolish the entire inside of the building down to the foundation and refurbish throughout. With the use of inmate labor and repurposing some of the materials, that number is more than enough.

The new home of the Holmes County Sheriffâ€™s Office is expected to be completed by the end of July. [DIANE M. MOORE | THE NEWS AND ADVERTISER]

â€œWe should be coming in under $500,000 upon completion,â€ Sheriff John Tate said. â€œ85 percent of the work has been completed through inmate labor, saving a lot of money.â€

â€œThere were 35 tons of demoed materials,â€ Auxiliary Deputy Steve Herrington said. â€œWe have been able to reuse 20 tons of that in rock, dirt and metal. That was a huge bonus for us.â€

The newly constructed interior of the building holds offices, a conference room, records room, kitchen and dining area, arms room and a hardened evidence room. That room in particular has a steel framework in the walls for extra security. The evidence room will also hold records that HCSO is mandated to keep for extended periods, as well as a cold storage area for DNA and samples that must be kept cold. The walls of the new interrogation rooms are reinforced to keep suspects from kicking through or damaging them in any way.

The front office at the new HCSO building has hand cut wood lining the walls and is more spacious than the current facility. [DIANE M. MOORE | THE NEWS AND ADVERTISER]

After abating the areas that contained mold, a new roof, siding and construction of offices was completed. All that remains for total completion is to paint the walls, finish the ceiling and install fixtures and finally to lay new flooring.

Tate says everything has gone as expected and that HCSO should be moved in by the end of July.

â€œWe are excited to get moved in and be in a new and bigger space,â€ Tate said. â€œWe are thankful for the funding to be able to make this new facility happen.â€