Site in downtown PB picked for new county sheriff’s office

— What’s now just a large mound of dirt on a lot at the corner of Second Avenue and Convention Center Boulevard in downtown Pine Bluff will be the new home of the Jefferson County sheriff’s office in 2013.

The project will cost $3.2 million - $1.7 million of which has already been allocated for the project - allowing workers to immediately begin construction, said Major Lafayette Woods Jr., public information officer for the department, in a recent e-mail.

“The remaining [funds] will come from an additional appropriation ... from equitable seized asset shares from the [U.S.] Department of Justice,” Woods said in his e-mail.

The building is go up next to the W.C. “Dub” Brassell Adult Detention Center.

The new facility will be built in phases as funds become available, county officials said. The department’s Patrol and Criminal Investigation divisions will be the first to move in after construction is completed in about a year, Woods said in the e-mail.

At groundbreaking ceremonies Nov. 7, officials said the building will be named after the late John Lloyd “Pete” Harrison, who worked at the Jefferson County sheriff’s office for 41 years.

Harrison served as chief deputy from 1976 until his retirement in 2004, according to a department news release. He died in 2007 at the age of 67.

Also, a brand new departmental flag will be flown outside the new sheriff’s office, the news release noted. The flag will “serve as a symbol that evokes history, tradition and the values of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office,” according to the news release.

“The flag and its logo bearing the departmental patch will help raise consciousness and pride, create recognition and redefine the identity of our agency.”

Jefferson County Sheriff Gerald Robinson has said that construction of a new sheriff’s office will be one of the highlights of his career. On Nov. 6, Robinson was elected to his third term as sheriff. He was first elected in 2006.

“This is something we have been waiting a long time for,” Robinson has said. “It will be good for morale, and it will allow our officers to be more efficient in their duties.”

The sheriff ’s office is currently split among three cramped downtown buildings - the Jefferson County Courthouse, where administrative offices are housed, and two aging structures across the street, one housing the criminal investigation division and the other the patrol division.

In recent months, ceiling tiles have fallen in both of the older buildings, and Robinson has said he considers the structures unfit for his employees.

“It’s to the point now where we don’t have any choice but to move out of these old buildings,” Robinson has said. “We are all very excited about this new project.”

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 8 on 11/19/2012

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