Construction Under Way for Centerville Law Enforcement Center

CENTERVILLE, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — The sounds of jack hammers and fork lifts fill the air near Centerville City Hall where a new law enforcement center is under way.

“Last week we came in it Monday and the exterior walls were coming up and it was all real nice and almost within the next day there were welders up there and the arc just suddenly appeared,” said Major W.G. Cooley, Centerville Police Department.

Cooley calls that arc the face of the department’s new LEC.

“Once you see that face coming up you get more and more excited because it’s telling you we’re almost here,” said Cooley.

The building Centerville officers currently call home base was the original city hall. It was built in 1958. City administrator Patrick Eidson says it’s simply too expensive to operate, and too outdated

“It’s really, it’s just a logistical nightmare from a… facility maintenance standpoint,” said Eidson.

For $3 million the building in front of the new LEC is being transformed into a new home for municipal court, and the LEC is being built from the ground up.

“It’s a more secure facility, and things will be a lot more stream lined in order for us to serve the public,” said Cooely

With more residents living in Centerville than 10 years ago, Eidson says it was time to give police more resources ‘to better serve and protect’.

 “We need a facility that will be able to allow our police department to deliver a quality service to our taxpayers.”

Major Cooley says the building will also have a ‘Sally Port’ which allows officers to secure a person before he or she gets out of a vehicle and enters the building. Currently, officers have to walk them outside which Cooley says is dangerous.

The building is expected to be complete by early 2014. The city borrowed the money from the Georgia Municipal Association. The loan will be repaid through the 2013 Houston County SPLOST.