Lindsay Craven
Staff Writer
County commissioners and other officials gathered for the groundbreaking of the jail addition on May 18.
“We owe a great debt of gratitude to the town officials of Yadkinville for helping facilitate this end result,” County Chair Kevin Austin said. “With this groundbreaking we kind of put a formal end on a long chapter here in Yadkin County and start a whole new chapter.”
The jail addition is a project that’s been five years in the making, initially causing countywide controversy about whether to build an addition on to the existing jail or to build another jail in a new location.
When it was first decided that a new jail needed to be built, previous commissioners wanted to move it to a new location on Reavis Road and possibly even building a new courthouse at the location.
“I’ll never forget the first time that I heard it said that they were going to build a jail out on Reavis Road,” County Vice Chair Frank Zachary said. “My initial reaction was: ‘What are they thinking?’ That’s one of the reasons I ran for commissioner, and I think the people have spoken.”
County residents protested, however, saying that moving the jail would lead to more county offices vacating the downtown area and potentially leaving downtown Yadkinville a ghost town.
When the current board of commissioners took office they all agreed that moving the jail was not in the best interest of the county. They set their sites on building an addition to the existing jail located at West Cherry Street.
After months of preparation and bargaining, construction has finally begun on the addition. Bordeaux Construction holds the contract for the site.
Initially bidding $6,739,500, Bordeaux worked with the county to cut costs down over $600,000 and met the commissioner’s cap of $6.135 million for the project.
The project is slated to be complete within 14 months from May 22.
Reach Lindsay Craven at 679-2341 or at lcraven@heartlandpubications.com.
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