WALTHALL —Webster County leaders have received updates on plans for the command center/jail to be built by the Courthouse.
Sheriff David Gore and Administrative Assistant/Deputy Tim Roberson addressed the Board of Supervisors on Jan. 31 about the progress on the new jail project. They announced a month earlier that a $3 million USDA Rural Development grant has been awarded for construction of the facility.
Gore distributed copies of Belinda Stewart Architects’ initial schematic design for the facility on Jan. 31. As shown in the floorplan and described by Gore, the Webster County Operations Center will house sheriff’s offices, male and female inmate dormitories, two holding cells, one padded cell, Justice Court (which is now in the County Office Building in Eupora), E911 dispatching center (now in Mathiston) and an emergency management command center.
Gore and Roberson said BSA has projected the cost of the facility to be $600,000-$700,000 less than the grant amount, which must be used in its entirety. To make up the difference, they recommended that the perimeter and top of the building be hardened and that space be added to house more inmates than originally planned.
Roberson said the county is eligible for a Mississippi/Federal Emergency Management Agency grant that would pay 75% of the estimated $1.9 million cost of that work. He said hardening would not only add to the longevity of the building but would allow it to serve as a storm shelter for Courthouse personnel and the public.
The board later approved a motion to allow Roberson to be administrator of the proposed project for the hardening of the new jail using the MEMA/FEMA grant money that is available for construction of the facility. The motion was made by Paul Crowley (District 4) and seconded by Doug Burgess (District 5).
Roberson also discussed the possibility of applying for grant funds to harden Eupora Elementary School, Eupora High School and East Webster Elementary School. East Webster High School already has a geodesic dome gymnasium that can serve as a storm shelter.
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To Add Annex
Belinda Stewart, BSA principal, and Craig Bjorgum, project architect, presented an updated schematic floorplan for the facility on Feb. 6. Stewart stressed that it is early in the design process.
The latest floorplan shows an attached 40-by-60 annex for county storage and the board agreed with the addition. Stewart had mentioned the possibility of tying the annex into the project when the board accepted her firm’s design contract in April.
Gore also discussed this possibility with the board on Jan. 31, and Board President Pat Cummings met with Stewart afterwards about reworking the design to include the annex. The county has budgeted funds for the annex, which according to previous discussion will provide storage and work areas for the chancery clerk, tax assessor-collector and election commissioners.
The Jan. 31 meeting was held in Chancery Clerk Russ Turner’s office because the boardroom in the Courthouse was being used as a polling place in the House District 23 runoff election.
