The Oglethorpe County Sheriff’s Office continues to work on two facility upgrades that Sheriff David Gabriel said he hopes will help his office better serve the county.
Construction continues on the temporary animal holding facility and a “new” training room, which is next to the county’s shooting range.
The Sheriff’s Office acquired the building in a trade with the Oglethorpe County School System, which was announced at the Board of Commissioners meeting in March.
The office agreed to provide weapons detection software in exchange for a modular building from the former Oglethorpe County Primary School.
The building is still under construction to add an entrance and deck, new flooring and walls to partition the space. The BOC approved using $10,000 from the school zone camera fund to fund the project at the March meeting.
The new room will be able to hold 35-40 people, Gabriel said, compared to around 20 at the current room in the Sheriff’s Office.
“It’s always exciting to have more stuff going on, and we try to do a lot of training for our people,” he said. “I don’t think you can ever get too much training.”
Gabriel said the office will be able to permanently house its virtual reality training simulator, which officers use for everything from practicing use of force scenarios to dealing with children.
Currently, officers have to set up and take down the equipment every time they use it.
In addition to officer preparedness training, Gabriel said he also hopes to invite the community to use the new space for firearm safety classes.
The temporary animal holding facility, which will be used to house animals for law enforcement purposes, isn’t finished.
The Sheriff’s Office has been working to build a concrete slab, two runs, five kennels with drainage and a cover since last September. The project was originally projected to take just three months.
The concrete slab, which wasn’t done in early May, has since been poured and Gabriel said he expects the project to be finished in the coming weeks.
Once the facility is complete, the Georgia Department of Agriculture will inspect it and issue the appropriate licenses.
It will host two dog runs, large enough to hold up to four dogs each, and at present, Gabriel said his agency needs to hold animals around three times a year.
He added that the temporary holding facility wouldn’t be used to house stray animals, as the county still supports the Madison Oglethorpe Animal Shelter, but would be for instances when an animal is involved in a crime, such as a dog bite, or instances when its owner is being held at the Oglethorpe County Jail.
He said he hopes the facility will save his deputies time on animal transport and money in boarding fees.
“This helps with the middle-of-the-night kind of stuff,” Gabriel said. “If (it’s) three o’clock in the morning (and you have) a problem you’ve got to deal with, it gives us the option to put (animals) here.”