DOBSON — While the big news out of the county seat is the closing of a national bank branch, another former bank site has become all broken in for local law enforcement.
Police Chief Shawn Myers said the Dobson Police Department finished its relocation around the start of March, about the same time the world was changing from COVID-19.
In fact, he had been considering hiring an office worker to man the front desk area near the entrance, but with the pandemic affecting how people get out and interact, he has chosen to hold off on that hire for now.
The relocation came about from an announcement two years earlier. Town and county officials announced in April 2018 they were notified by Capital Bank that, as part of an upcoming merger with First Tennessee, it would be closing the branch on the corner of Kapp and Crutchfield streets next to the post office and just off the courthouse square.
Then in June 2019, the town of Dobson voted to approve a financing deal to purchase the property.
At that meeting, Town Manager Laura Neely and town attorney Hugh Campbell presented the Dobson Board of Commissioners with an installment financial agreement between the town and Shelton Companies to purchase the property for $295,000 interest-free over three years. This would be paid in three equal payments of $98,333, she told the board.
Neely said it was her understanding that Shelton Companies bought the bank site when the branch closed because it had a development in mind for the spot. When that deal didn’t happen, the town and Shelton Companies began to talk.
The next month, Neely returned with the finished financial agreement to be signed.
Neely told the board that Chief Myers has been speaking to contractors about what would be necessary to create a proper police station inside.
“We were surprised at how little needs to be done,” Neely said of the conversations up to that point.
On Thursday, Neely said the town only had to spend about $45,000 to renovate the building for the police department’s use and get everything hooked up. With the interest-free financing, that comes to $340,000 to create a precinct as well as freeing up room in Town Hall.
“It’s a great space for the officers, it fits their needs,” said Neely. The location is more accessible for the public than being part of the town office.
A police department has certain specialized needs, but she said luckily the bank had a lot of data infrastructure already in place for the police to connect to.
Chief Myers said the work included putting in a couple of walls and extending an office to make it bigger. There were also some new security cameras installed.
The building houses the eight officers on the roster now, with the possible office assistant hire down the road, Myers noted.
The location does not have any sort of holding cells for prisoners. Myers said any suspects would be taken to the Surry County Detention Center. State and federal governments have many laws requiring what a facility needs to house prisoners, and that would add a great deal to the cost of a building — and that wouldn’t make sense with the county jail only a few hundred feet away.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com