It looks like the employees and long-term detainees at the Blaine County Jail in Hailey will have a new home this summer.
According to Lt. Jay Davis, a spokesman for the Blaine County Sheriff's Office, plans for completion of a new 36,500-square-foot public safety facility at the Airport West light-industrial park in Hailey are right on schedule. The facility will house a new jail, sheriff's headquarters and central dispatch center.
"I can tell you that everyone and everything is on track," Davis said. "We should be looking at our promised date of July 7, as long as the inspection for occupancy goes OK."
The occupancy inspection is scheduled for June 23.
In anticipation of the upcoming inspection, Davis and a number of other members of the sheriff's office, including Capt. Ed Fuller and Sheriff Walt Femling, have been working overtime.
They have been spending two to three hours each day looking at nitty-gritty details such as where security cameras are located, how furniture is placed in the cells, and how the central control area looks and operates.
"We are looking at all the little things and making sure that it all looks good," Davis said.
In addition to the building schedule being on target, so is the budget, Davis said. So far, there have been no big new expenditures.
"I'm pleased," Davis said. "There is nothing that we know of, and I think we are doing really well."
After the inspection for occupancy, the sheriff's office will start pinning down more exact dates for the move. The department would like to hold public tours as well as a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Davis does not expect a transfer of individuals being detained in the old jail to the new space until late July or early August.
Davis said he is unsure about the transition of the county's Consolidated Emergency Dispatch Center.
"It is still uncertain, as there is still no tower yet," Davis said.
