Sheriff’s Office gets moved

By CAITLIN SULLIVAN/Staff
The sheriff was still settling into his new digs last week.
“We’re trying to find a vacuum cleaner somewhere here,” Washington County Sheriff Fred Newman said to an inmate on cleaning crew.
The Sheriff’s Office moved to a space three times the size of the one they had in downtown Abingdon, to a 58,000-square-foot facility on Route 19 shared by county General Services, Emergency Services and Information Systems.
Newman said the move was needed. His 85 employees shared offices, desks and cramped bathrooms. Eight people shared one bathroom. In addition, the old Sheriff’s Office on Park Street in Abingdon was made up of four separate buildings, one of which dates back to 1900. Another served as the old jail until it was closed in 2005. Each building had a separate heating and cooling system and employees had to walk from building to building to meet with different divisions of the Sheriff’s Office. The deputy quarters were in a building that was prone to flooding, so they kept computer equipment on blocks to prevent damage, Newman said.
But one of the biggest concerns for the sheriff was security.
“You couldn’t maintain security of offices,” he said. “You had a lot of people walk through the campus.”
The office was backed on one side by railroad tracks and a creek. A bridge over the creek gave people a short cut by walking through the property.
Now, there’s eight acres and a huge facility to stretch out in. The building, built in 1973, used to house Appalachian Power. The county bought it for $2.4 million and the Sheriff’s Office is taking care of all the renovation and furniture purchases through asset forfeitures, Newman said. He said they’ve acquired $360,000 worth of goods through asset forfeitures.
“We’re happy to be out here and lucky to be in this facility and it gives the county something to be proud of,” he said.
Nadine Culberson of Information Systems said that the new facility acts as a wireless access point so when deputies pull up they’ll get an updated map of active calls. The new facility also provides a garage for vehicles’ mapping computers to be worked on.
“My guys used to have to work in the rain,” she said.
Newman said that previously one office served four sergeants and each had a separate file cabinet. Now they all not only have their own desks but their own offices.
There’s also a one-way window for victims to view a suspect. Previously, officers would set up a video camera in the interview room, tape the interview and the show the victim afterward.
There’s also a weight room.
Newman said his office receives a lot of calls from the lower end of the county and now his department is better situated to respond.
“It allows us to respond to calls quicker and get out of town,” he said.
Newman has ideas for more improvements and use for some of the land on the property. He hopes to move the animal shelter there so the entire Sheriff’s Office operations will be at one central location.
“I’m hoping to move dispatch here in January or February,” he said. “Eventually we’ll have one Sheriff’s Office.”
When Newman took office in 2000, he had 58 employees. Now, just as his ranks have expanded so has his offices, but not without a little learning curve.
“I’m trying to think of where I’m at,” Newman said at the juncture of three long corridors last week. “It’s like moving into a new home, it takes a while to get adjusted to where everything is. It will take some while to get a feel for the building.”
To contact Caitlin Sullivan email or call (276) 628-7101.