FARMINGTON – Sheriff Dennis Pike is looking to study space and security needs at both the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department’s administration and dispatch offices, and the jail this year.
Pike said Thursday that he wanted to get architectural designs and projected costs done in 2005 for both projects but put them on hold after a part of the ventilation at the jail had to be replaced and gas prices rose “astronomically.”
However, he’s hoping to get some preliminary work done on both projects this year.
Money has been put into a reserve fund since about 2000 for the sheriff’s administration and dispatch offices. Pike estimated there was $100,000 in the account. The sheriff has also put aside money for the jail, he said, since about 2002 but he didn’t have the total of the account Thursday.
The dispatch office is “extremely cramped for space” and though they do have three operating stations for dispatchers, the third one is in a closet due to space constraints, Pike said.
The patrol sergeant is working out of an unfinished space that was previously used to store evidence, Pike said, and two large cargo containers sit outside the sheriff’s office to help with the overflow of paper work, files and evidence.
Additionally, Pike said he is working out of his home to ease some of the space limitations.
The proposed study would determine if it would be more efficient for taxpayers for the building to be razed and a new one built, or to add space to the current building, Pike said.
The jail, built to house 23 inmates, also has space constraints.
The county’s license was increased to house 29 inmates this year, but the jail population on average last year was 36 inmates, Pike said. Though the population had dropped some during 2005 for a short period, on Thursday there were 37 inmates, he said.
Other pending goals Pike said he has are to establish wireless laptop computer capabilities and expand training options for county employees.
Among his other goals is to update the current electronic inmate monitoring system to include global positioning information for all qualified participants.
The current monitoring system works over a telephone line, but all the people monitoring can tell is when someone on the system goes past boundaries, Pike said.
The new GPS system would allow monitors to know where the person on the system actually is located, he said.
Pike also wants to double the county garden that inmates tended last year. The produce was used for jail meals.
“It did work out extremely well,” he said, and “was well embraced.”
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