Local & State Headlines

Sylvester PD gets new digs

• Sylvester opens a new police station with an eye on future growth.

Susan McCord

SYLVESTER — It was official Sunday. The Sylvester Police Department no longer resides at one end of the city’s former railroad depot, but has a home of its own, a new, 12,000-square-foot headquarters.

Sylvester Police haven’t moved far, only a block west to South Isabella Street. But the new station, which opened its security doors to the public Sunday, has everything the old one obviously lacked — men’s and women’s locker rooms, a lab and workshop, training and conference rooms, ample work space for patrol officers, a secure evidence room, two detaining cells.

A critical 2004 review by the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police had prompted emergency measures at the old station — stronger locks, security cameras — and pushed along a goal of building a station to replace the South Main Street depot station, which bears a brass plaque commemorating renovations — in 1978.

“We just had to make do,” said Sylvester Police Chief Tony Strenth of the old station. “We were blessed, we had that big courtroom (Sylvester’s city court) down there; we used that for everything.”

The addition of detaining cells at the new facility was greatly needed, because Worth County’s 50-person jail rarely has room to hold suspects arrested in Sylvester or picked up on warrants from other counties, Strenth said.

“If we’d catch somebody (before) we had to sit there with them,” he said. “We had no holding space. Now we can sit them in there for a little while.”

The new station is great for morale at the 27-member department, but it’s also good for policing, he said.

“We all like new things,” Strenth said. “This is a place where we can grow. It’s nice enough where we can have anybody in, but we still work in it.”

The force is presently staffed by a chief, assistant chief, one captain, four sergeants, two drug agents, 14 patrol officers, four dispatchers and two court personnel, said Strenth, who has been on the force for 22 years and was named chief in 2004.

The $2 million station has been in the works about three years, said Sylvester Mayor Bill Yearta.

“We wanted something that was complementary to our historic downtown,” Yearta said. “We’re hoping it will help revitalize South Isabella Street; it’s kind of symbolic.”

A last-minute “punch list” delayed the building’s opening a few months. A new voice-over Internet protocol phone system connected to the city’s fiber optic network had to be fully functional before the move was completed.

“This building is going to carry us 50 years into the future; hopefully longer than that,” said Yearta.

The building faces the former Bank of Worth County, a historic structure diagonally across Isabella Street.

“The overall desire was for the building to fit within the existing downtown area and to sort of start an expansion of the downtown area in that direction,” said Bruce Richards, architect for the project with SRJ Architects in Albany.

The police station’s brick and cast stone facade, Richards said, reflects that of the bank, now home to a music studio.

“We’re proud to have this facility in this location,” said Sylvester council member Melvin Powell, whose city ward includes the police station.

“It’s a great start for this side of town, the south side,” said Powell, who faces opposition Tuesday for the council seat.

Sylvester Police Sgt. Demetric King said many off-duty officers came in on their days off to attend the open house Sunday.

“Everybody’s pretty happy right now; we’re maintaining composure,” King said.

“We’re proud of it; we’re real proud of it,” said Sylvester Assistant Police Chief Margaret White, who will have been with the force for 22 years Dec. 12. “All the best years of my life,” she said.

The station was built using Worth County special-purpose, local-option sales-tax funds.

“Remind everybody to shop in Sylvester and Worth County, so we can continue to support these kinds of projects,” said Sylvester council member Tommy Snipes.

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