Donley Co. considering facility for emergency operations

Donley County Judge John Howard addressed the county’s plans for recently acquired property near the Courthouse Square as the featured program at the Clarendon Lions Club Tuesday.

The county acquired a quarter of a block at the southwest corner of Third and Jefferson across the street west of the county jail about a year ago. Recent demolition of the houses on that property caused a stir on social media which resulted in misinformation being generated.

To set the record straight, he said, the county is not and will not be building a new jail. Howard said the current jail, the original part of which was built in 1981, meets the county’s needs and is “a fortress.” There is no way, Howard said, the county could afford to build a new jail and meet the modern state standards that would be required to do so.

The judge did say, however, that the county is considering construction of a new facility that would house the Donley County Sheriff’s Office and serve as an Emergency Operations Center.

“About ten years ago, I asked the commissioners, “Where are we? What do we have? And where are we going?” Howard said. “We wanted to look to the future and think about what our needs are for years to come.”

Since that time, the county has built a new justice of the peace office in Hedley, a new county barn in Hedley, added on to the county barn in Clarendon, and renovated the Courthouse Annex. Repairs also have been made and proposed facelifts have been discussed for county-owned buildings on the east side of Sully Street north of City Hall.

All of these improvements were made without borrowing money, and the county tax rate is lower than it was ten years ago, Howard said.

Howard said the jail doesn’t have much space for the sheriff’s office, and he noted that dispatchers also serve as jailers, doing two jobs at once. Giving more space to the jailer/dispatchers would require taking in office space used by the sheriff and deputies.

The judge said one that would be good for the county to have is an Emergency Operations Center.

“You don’t have to have it but it would be nice,” he said. “Any event that results in prolonged destruction – like a tornado – or a loss of power or a toxic spill on US 287 or the railroad is going to require more response than what Donley County can provide on its own, and where do you house that?”

Howard said an Emergency Operations Center could be co-located with a new sheriff’s office and could include redundancies in power and communications to remain active during disasters and have workstations available for other emergency officials who would respond from outside the county.

Howard said everything is just the planning and discussion stages right now, but when the county saw an opportunity to purchase property near the jail it moved to buy that in the marketplace. Only one of the homes was occupied, and that renter was given a year’s notice that the county was not going to be in the rental business and that the HUD agreement for that residence would not be renewed.

The properties were purchased for $139,000, and the county paid Grant Construction $24,690 to demolish the houses.

Howard said Commissioner Dan Sawyer is planning to donate gravel to create a parking area, and a carport was left standing for the county’s use.

The Blocker Apartments to the south of the property was not acquired by the county.

The county has no immediate plan to build an Emergency Operations Center, and Howard said Sheriff Butch Blackburn doesn’t have much interest in a new office. Howard federal grant funds could possibly be acquired to help build such a facility. To pursue that option requires working with US Rep. Ronny Jackson’s office and would require the county to get an architect involved and get cost estimates.

Blackburn said he’s not against the idea if there’s grant money to pay for it; but if there’s no grant money, he’s not in favor of asking Donley County taxpayers to pay for it.

If everything were to move forward with a grant application, Howard said federal appropriations wouldn’t happen until fiscal year 2026 or 2027 at the earliest.