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Sheriff says jail construction coming to a close

Sheriff W.E. “Billy” Smith gave welcome news to the Lenoir County Commission as he told its members the new Lenoir County Jail facility should be operational soon.

Smith said Monday he intends to move some of the sheriff’s office current operations to the jail to free up office space. The jail administrator and staff will relocate, along with the house arrest program, the magistrates’ office and small claims court.

“It’s a very congested, very unprofessional atmosphere downstairs,” Smith said. “So now they will be able to go into the new facility. They will begin to have small claims court over there. … It’s a restructuring that’s necessary (of the) location.”

One of the reasons Smith went before the commission was to request $11,925 to improve the basement of the courthouse. He wants to move some of the county detectives from their present overcrowded situation to what will then be vacant offices, but wants the area spruced up beforehand.

“Through the years, you’ve noticed if you walk through the first floor of the courthouse, it’s nice and clean, it smells good,” Smith said. “But if you go down another floor, where a lot of work goes on behind the scenes, it’s an unprofessional atmosphere.

“The walls are dirty, and I want to, with some excess gas fuel money because the price did come down even though it’s gone back up, but we’re in good shape and it’s already allocated in the budget as money — we just want to transfer it to accomplish this painting and refurbishment of the basement.”

The commission unanimously agreed to reallocate the money, which will be used to hire Creech’s Painting, which came in with the lowest quote. It also approved paying $22,854 to cover part of the cost of a 2013 Dodge Charger, a replacement vehicle for the sheriff’s office, taking the spot of a car totaled while responding to an incident.

Commissioner Eric Rouse brought up the idea he first broached at the Jan. 22 meeting of the commission passing a resolution against disarming the citizenry, in response to proposed gun control measures by the federal government.

“The last time we met we talked about this, but I would like the board to reconsider its position on the second amendment,” Rouse said. “I still think we need to do some sort of resolution. I would love to see it and I think people in the community would like to see something on that.”

The idea received a lukewarm reception in January, but Rouse is expected to introduce a resolution at the Feb. 18 meeting.

 

Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 or wes.wolfe@kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at WolfeReports.


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