WALTHALL — Local officials learned last week that federal funding has been allocated for a unified Webster County command center that will include a new jail.
Sheriff David Gore and Administrative Assistant/Deputy Tim Robertson made the announcement during the Dec. 30 recessed meeting of the Webster County Board of Supervisors.
Robertson said the Sheriff’s Department received a call the previous day from the Washington office of U.S. Rep. Trent Kelly (R-1st District) that a $3 million USDA Rural Development grant has been awarded for the command center/jail. Official notification is expected within a few weeks.
“Nobody’s taxes will go up because of it,” Gore said of being able to build the new facility with the full grant. The Board of Supervisors had voted in 2021 to pursue a County Facilities Direct Loan and Grant up to $5 million from USDA RD for the project.
The 7,000-square-foot Webster County Operations Center will house an emergency management command center, 911 dispatching center and sheriff’s office. It will also have holding cells to accommodate up to 30 people to include those with drug dependencies and mental illnesses that currently cannot be achieved. It will replace the existing Emergency Operations Center that includes 911 operations on the former Wood College campus in Mathiston and the existing sheriff’s office/jail located on Government Avenue in Eupora.
Although the Sheriff’s Office and jail have been located in Eupora for 57 years, Gore said state law requires that a jail be located within 3 miles of the county seat, which is the village of Walthall. The new facility will be located adjacent to the Courthouse on county-owned property on the west side of Highway 9 at Highway 50.
According to a supporting document for the successful grant application:
• The project will effectively place Webster County leadership in a single building to efficiently and effectively solve any and all governing challenges of the county’s operational day-to-day requirements to health and safety issues created from any disasters that materialize locally.
• The project will provide a centralized command center for all of Webster County government to more effectively govern in any situation that is either manmade (such as hazardous materials along the 84 miles of state and federal highways and 496 miles of county roads, or active shooters/terrorists in the public schools here) or any natural disaster (floods, thunderstorms, hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes, severe winter storms, drought and extreme heat).
• Repairing and maintaining the county’s current scattered facilities (some of which are leased) would cost a great amount more than building the single new command center, and the maintenance of a single facility will require much less taxpayer monies and operational functions.
• The center will not only benefit the citizens and county employees of Webster County but also benefit and provide better safety to the travelers of the Natchez Trace Parkway that cuts across the entirety of the county (north to south) and the thousands of citizens in the surrounding seven counties.
Referring to the existing jail, the document points out that the facility was condemned in 2009 by a federal judge and multiple yearly grand jury inspections. The new project will meet all codes and standards. Belinda Stewart Architects of Eupora is providing architectural/engineering design services.
