Linton police show off new facility

Several members of the community, city officials, Greene County elected officials and representatives of local police departments turned out Friday afternoon for an open house and ribbon cutting ceremony at the new Linton Police Department.

“This is a structure we hope will stand for 100 years. With the foresight and vision of many people, it's become a reality. I, personally as mayor, would like to say thank you,” Linton Mayor Tom Jones said prior to cutting the ribbon for the police station's ribbon cutting ceremony. “I want to thank the council for their guidance and vision to make sure this building got done.”

Chief Troy Jerrell also expressed thanks to the community, the council and Mayor Jones.

“I just want to thank the community, the council and the mayor for the new building,” Jerrell said. “It's been a long time coming. I really appreciate it. It'll be a lot nicer to work in. It's unbelievable to have this building.”

The city used $352,000, which was set aside by the former administration of Mayor Jimmie K. Wright, to purchase the former Ross's Floor Store building.

Through fiscal management and budgeting, Jones set back $412,000 and put $128,000 in a capital improvements fund to cover the cost of renovating the building.

“It's been a budgeting process. It's actually been something about using fiscal management so you can do things like this,” Jones said. “I'm very proud of the fact that we had the vision to make sure something happened and get it done.”

If the building project were to have started from scratch, Jones said, it would've cost more than $1 million. Public works projects, like police stations, have more requirements, which would have resulted in more money.

“We avoided about $500,000 in soft costs by doing it the way we did it and it's actually an evaluated project for the city of Linton,” Jones said.

Jones stressed that the building is paid for. He added that the renovation process came in at seven percent under budget.