ground breaking
Fourteen months after voters approved an extension of the okmulgee county sales tax, ground was officially broken for the new jail annex Monday.
County commissioners J.W. Hill, Robert Hardridge and James Connors, along county sheriff Eddy Rice, jail administrator John Martin, county clerk Becky Thomas and architects used the ceremonial gold shovels to turn the dirt. Earlier that morning, a backhoe had already gouged out a swimming pool-sized hole in the ground just to the northwest of the county court house.
The annex will be built on land formerly used by the Warhouse Market in Okmulgee.
"This is a particularly happy day for us, one we have been waiting for a long time", said Hardridge.
In 2014, voters approved renewal of a quarter-cent sales tax that will be used to help pay the $7 million to build the jail annex. Commissioners said the new facility is necessary to eliminate overcrowding in the present jail. Some 300 people a day are now kept in the jail that was built to house 120.
That overcrowding has resulted in citations from the Oklahoma Health Department.
The new jail facility is to be used to house non-violent offenders and allow space for juvenile incarceration. Because of the current overcrowding, juveniles have to be sent to other facilities out of the county.