Ribbon cutting for jail slated for Jan. 20
By Steve Herring
Published in News on January 4, 2017 9:57 AM
A ribbon cutting for the new approximately $10 million Carey A. Winders Detention Center is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 20.
"Of course none of the residents will be on site at that particular time," Wayne County Commission Chairman Bill Pate said. "The problem we are going to have is we are going to be doing some remodeling over at the other jail, floor by floor. So we will fill up the new facility fairly quickly so we can do the work over there."
It will be some time in February before the inmates move in, he said.
Sheriff Larry Pierce wants time to train staff before moving the inmates in, Pate said.
Also, detention officers will be trained to work at either facility, Pate said.
"I think it is important to be able to do that," he said. "I'd kind of like to see us take a step back and catch a breath and let some of these projects get finished out because I know we've got some debt that's coming off in '18. I don't really want us to incur, this is one commissioner's thinking, a lot more debt in the near term until we start finishing paying out some debt in 2018.
"We talked about this the other day in the schools alone over the past four years we have invested right at $80 million -- two new schools. We are remodeling both at (Charles B.) Aycock (High School), here in town. Then we are going to build a brand new school at Meadow Lane and a new gym at South Wayne with classrooms there and another 21, 22 classrooms in the northern party of the county. That is a pretty hefty investment."
The reason it was tallied up was for Pate's comments at a recent public hearing in support of the Air Force's plans to base the new KC-46A Pegasus tanker aircraft at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.
"I wanted to make sure that they understood that they matter and that is why we are making such an investment in our schools because you know we need those new tankers to save us from a possible BRAC here at Seymour Johnson," Pate said.
The new jail is named in memory of Winders, who served as sheriff for nearly 20 years.
Winders, 57, died unexpectedly in January 2014.
It has three dorm-style wings, each capable of housing 64 inmates, and one wing of 15 double cells.
There are two control rooms, each able to monitor two wings with utility runs located behind each of the wings.
That allows work to be done without coming in contact with an inmate, and there is no concern about having tools.
Also, water flow in the lavatories and toilets can be shut off from the control rooms so that inmates cannot cause them to overflow.
Daniels and Daniels Construction Co. built the 38,500-square-foot, single-story, 218-bed jail located on county-owned property on North William Street.
A full kitchen was not included in the plans because of a future plan to build a larger jail on the same site and that would include a kitchen large enough to accommodate both facilities.
The county is paying cash for the jail that is the first phase of a larger envisioned judicial center that includes construction of a larger jail that will be connected to the satellite jail through a secure corridor.
No money has been earmarked, nor timetable established, for that project.
Once occupied, the county is expecting to eliminate the nearly $1 million it is now paying annually to house inmates in other county jails because of chronic overcrowding at the existing jail downtown.
With the new jail, the county anticipates having extra space that it can rent to other counties.