By Jessie Burchette
jburchette@salisburypost.com
County officials expect a new 48-bed pod at the Rowan County Detention Center to be ready for occupancy by Jan. 1.
The completion of the new section of cells is the final part of a $4 million upfit of the Rowan County Justice Center that included re-opening the front doors of the courthouse, a public entrance to the Sheriff’s Office on Main Street and two additional courtrooms.
Contractors have overcome a few snags in construction.
The biggest delay has been the replacement of several large panels of 2-inch-thick Lexan plastic in the control tower. Several panels of the high-impact-resistant thermoplastic material were shattered during shipping.
Ken Deal, the county’s director of administrative services, said recently the replacement panels have arrived and been put in place.
Once the panels were in place, construction crews were able to seal a hole cut in the Liberty Street side of the jail and remove scaffolding and barricades that had been in the street for almost a year.
Construction crews also installed a large sewage grinder called a Muffin Monster in a vault in the basement of the jail. That is expected to end a multitude of sewage line blockages caused by inmates throwing assorted objects and materials in the toilets.
Workers are putting finishing touches on the inside of the third-floor pod, taking care of painting and other minor items on a checklist.
The single-bed cells in the new section will house the most serious offenders.
The new section will relieve some overcrowding in the jail, but the county will still be out of compliance with state regulations.
General contractor H.M. Kern Corp. of Greensboro began work on the project in early 2008.
Kern and subcontractors have removed most of their equipment and materials from a fenced-in area at the corner of Liberty and Church streets. Deal said the area will be returned to Sheriff’s Office parking as soon as possible.
Once the project is completed, all the space within the Justice Center will be in use. The facility was built in 1995, with large sections left unfinished for future expansion.
The detention center was built with heavy-duty concrete and steel foundations to allow for a fourth floor that could have housed more than 100 prisoners.
But in the decade since, changes in building standards virtually ruled out a fourth floor. Other challenges included having to remove sides of the existing jail and removing inmates from the third floor.
County officials are working on plans and looking at sites for a jail annex that will provide space for 120 inmates.
The Rowan County Jail Annex Committee will meet at 4 p.m. Monday in Room 203 of the Cohen Administrative Office Building, 130 W. Innes St.