Beckley, WV – (WWNR) – It started in the basement of the Raleigh County Courthouse, then moved to South Eisenhower Drive. Now, after more than 170 years, the Raleigh County Sheriff’s Department finally has a place to call its own.
A grand opening ceremony was held Friday for the Raleigh County Sheriff’s Department’s new headquarters in the Pinecrest Industrial Park. Current and former law enforcement joined elected officials and members of the public in a tour of the 27,000 square foot facility.
“We’ll begin working here on Monday,” said Raleigh County Sheriff J.C. Canaday. “We’ll do the move throughout the course of next week, and some parts are going to take a little longer than that, but for the most part, within the next couple of weeks, we should be 90% functional out of this building.”
“We’ll be able to provide much better, much more streamlined service. The technological advances that we’ve been able to make with new servers when we come over here will allow us to be more efficient in the things that we do. The way that the building is laid out, the public is safer, more secure, and if they need to speak to a deputy, they have places to go where they can have a little more privacy to do that, so I think it’s beneficial to everybody.”
The new facility features lots of office space for Sheriff Canaday and his deputies, along with a large kennel for K-9 officers, which features a shower and personal entrance. There’s a large records department, an evidence storage area, interview rooms and holding cells.
Several local restaurants served refreshments at Friday’s grand opening, including Hilltop Coffee, which had several special brews to celebrate the new Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff Canaday says the new building represents an investment and appreciation for the men and women who work there. And it’s also for the people who will work there in the future.
“The future of this building is built on the past experiences and the past work and the past vision that people that have been here have had. We’ve learned from them, we’ve built on that and we’ve tried to make a better today and a better future for our folks, based on the things that we’ve learned about through our history.”
