A new Winston County building could be a game changer

WINSTON COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI)- Privacy, security, and lack of space have all become major concerns for Winston county elected officials.

Since their old office building was torn down a few years ago, they have been working practically on top of each other.

“This is the county’s first building project in 50+ years in expanding space so that we can provide services,” said Buddy King.

The Winston County Board of supervisors is in the final stages of a project the county desperately needs.

The building will be the new home for emergency management, sheriff’s department, and board members.

“Basically we will all be back together in one spot, and we can communicate easier, and we can keep our evidence in the same location we’re in we can keep all the tools of our trade in the same location where it’s going to speed up the process dramatically,” said Sheriff Jason Pugh.

Currently, many officials are working in temporary quarters or offices their departments have outgrown. And it’s starting to cause problems.

“You do have to adapt your filing your record collections the documents that you need a drawback on I have documents from five years ago that I need to access for functions of today,” said King.

“Our investigators, when they are questioning somebody, they are either at their building questioning those people, or they’re actually using my office here in the courthouse. As you see, when you walk in you know there’s a good bit of through traffic in the sheriff’s department. There are people coming to get their drivers license, there’s people heading to justice court, there are people that are needing directions to other parts of the courthouse because we’re kind of the basement entrance into the courthouse,” said Sheriff Pugh.

FEMA money is helping to finance the new building.

Sheriff Jason Pugh says the facility will be a game changer.

“They’re building us something we’ve never had. They’re building us two interrogation rooms into this building and basically what that gives us is the ability to separate multiple suspects to discuss what we need to discuss with them and have a secure environment when we do that without people walking in and interrupting the process,” said Sheriff Pugh.

The building will also serve as a place for elected officials to meet with each other and with the public.