Officials break ground on Henderson County jail addition
By Beth Smith
It's been in the paperwork and planning stages for years.
However, the first steps to actually constructing the roughly $2 million addition to the Henderson County Detention Center began Monday morning with crews moving dirt and preparing ground.
"I've been working on this for 3 1/2 years," said Jailer Ron Herrington. "The expansion will move our facility to the next level. It will allow us to feed close to 700 inmates three times a day in an orderly fashion instead of taking hours and hours and hours just to cook and prepare meals."
The current kitchen is approximately 836 square feet, and according to jail officials, has struggled to keep up with the inmate population which has tripled since the detention center opened its doors in 1996. The new kitchen will be around 2,866 square feet.
In addition to the kitchen, the project also includes a larger multipurpose room, dorm area renovations and locker room upgrades. Danco Construction is in charge of the building and renovation end, while Fosse and Associates Architectural Firm developed the plans.
The Henderson County Fiscal Court approved selling bonds to pay for the project with Herrington offering to use $800,000 out of the jail's accounts to make the first three years of bond payments.
The jail expansion was originally expected to begin in January. However, there were a variety of factors that caused a delay, according to Col. Amy Brady.
"The weather was a large factor," she said. "Also, changes in the expansion plans, and there have been several, as far as the layout" of the new and renovated rooms.
"We're just trying to get the most for what we are going to finance on this expansion," Brady said. Weather permitting, "construction should be completed in about seven months."
After years of planning, "it's great" to finally get the expansion underway, she said. "We've waited on this a long time. The kitchen we have currently was built for about 236 prisoners, and we're sitting now right at 700. So three meals a day, plus sack lunches ... it's insane trying to get that much food prepared and out of the building in that small of a space."
"We're ready for it," she said.
"I couldn't be any happier about the groundbreaking," Herrington said. "It could open doors for future contracts with the federal government. And I think adding onto the kitchen and renovating for a multi-purpose room for additional classes, will in the future, possibly accommodate a larger substance abuse program or other statewide programs."