Quorum Court Gets Jail, Broadband Update

RISON - Sheriff Jack Rodgers told the Cleveland County Quorum Court Monday night that renovations to the county jail should be completed within the next four to five weeks.Meanwhile, Britt Talent with the Cleveland County Broadband Committee informed the quorum court that most of the county has been declared eligible to receive grant money to help install a fiber optic network to provide high speed internet service to those who currently only hav access to low speed service.After a state inspection last year found that the county jail did not meet the state Criminal Detention Facility Standards, the quorum court approved spending nearly $300,000 with Detention Service, LLC of San Antonio, Texas, to make the necessary upgrades to keep the jail in compliance. Those upgrades included new toilets/ lavatories and new jail cell doors, among other renovations.Rodgers reported Monday night that all the materials are now on location and installation of the new jail cell doors is currently underway. He said some of the door openings had to be enlarged to put the jail in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). That required cutting through the cin-der block walls, which Rodgers said is creating a tremendous amount of dust inside the jail as well as the dispatcher's office.In all, the county allocated $296,450 for the renovations. After paying for the materials he has already received, Rodger said he has $176,425.84 left in that budget. He told the quorum court that he expects to complete the project within budget and could possibly have some money left over.On another project related to the sheriff's department, Rodgers reported that the new radio communications system is completely installed and operational. He said a storage build-ing that was originally bought to house the "brains" of the new communication system was not needed, and that building will now be used by all the county offices for additional storage....