Tours offered next week for Floyd County Law Enforcement Center

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Tours will be offered next week to see the new Floyd County Law Enforcement Center.

This may be the only opportunity — other than being arrested — for people to see what has been built on the property next to the courthouse over the last almost two years, because once detainees are housed in the jail there will be no public access.

Work on the center, which includes a new county jail, Sheriff’s Office, dispatch center and emergency management space, is nearing its end, with construction crews going through a punch list of final items to complete and inspectors granting the approvals needed to begin using the building.

Supervisor Linda Tjaden said tours will be offered next week on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, with several tours each day and reservations required in advance to control the numbers.

Persons who want to take a tour can call the Floyd County Auditor’s Office at 641-257-6131 to make a reservation. The tours will take about an hour each, and the schedule is:

• Wednesday, Oct. 13 – 11 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.
• Thursday, Oct. 14 – 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
• Friday, Oct. 15 – 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m.

With 11 tours planned and a maximum of 30 people per tour, that will limit the number of people who can go through the facility to 330, and Tjaden said she realizes there may be more demand than that.

The concern, she said, is this is a secure facility, and tours need to be escorted through the building.

She said she’s hopeful that a few additional tours can be held the following week if there is enough demand and it works out with the scheduling.

But for the tours next week, “it’s first come, first served,” she said about the reservation list.