Aiken County officials will know more about how - and when - the Aiken County Sheriff's Office will get a new building after a consultant conducts a space needs analysis.
The current building, at 420 Hampton Ave., has been stretched beyond capacity with a growing patrol force, according to Capt. Eric Abdullah.
"We've done some renovations where we made some office space for our narcotics unit and special operations team," he said, adding that the renovations also have increased the size of evidence storage and added forensics and chemist labs.
The exact age of the building is unknown, but a history of Aiken County published on the County's website indicates the Sheriff's Office was constructed sometime in the 1960s. That includes the former jail, which is directly behind the Sheriff's Office and was vacated after the new jail opened on Wire Road in 2002.
In another attempt to add space to the Sheriff's Office while saving money, a 5,000-square-foot steel structure that had been attached to the front of the former Aiken hospital on Richland Avenue was relocated by a house-moving firm in 1980 to a new foundation where the Sheriff's Office is now. This was renovated into the Sheriff's Office headquarters, and also housed County dispatch.
Assistant County Administrator Andy Merriman said additions were made in 1997 to house dispatch and records. After the new jail opened in 2002, the Sheriff's Office began housing some of its operations in the former jail, including evidence storage and even some office space.
"We've been as creative as you can be saving money, but it comes to a point where it just doesn't work anymore," County Administrator Clay Killian said. "The closing of the jail bought us a few more years with this building."
Now, the County must decide if it wants to put bandages on the current building and squeeze another few years out of it while a new facility is built, or renovate a vacant grocery store on Beaufort Street to temporarily house sheriff's operations.
Killian said the former option would be his recommendation.
"If we can buy a few more years with this (Beaufort Street) building, that might be the best solution," he said. "We haven't yet determined if we can buy those few more years with this (Hampton Avenue) building."
The former Food Lion on Beaufort Street, which closed in 2006, is being eyed by the County as a temporary location for the Sheriff's Office. The City of Aiken's Board of Zoning Appeals approved the use of the building, but the County will still have to seek approval to make any changes to the structure.
Killian said the former grocery store is only about 3,000 square feet larger than the current Sheriff's Office building.
"Do we make this building last a little longer and jump all the way to the permanent fix, or do we do a semi-permanent fix on the Food Lion building and make it last 10 years or longer in a less-than-ideal situation?" he said. "If this building can last and then we jump on the permanent fix, that's probably the recommendation I'm going to make. If this building cannot last, then the Food Lion may be the semi-interim option, if you will."
To help the County decide, planning principal Karen Chinn will conduct a space needs analysis on the Sheriff's Office. Killian said Chinn specializes in government, law enforcement and court facilities, and even conducted the space needs analysis for the new Aiken County Government Center. Killian said the analysis should take about 3½ months, and he wants it to begin as early as possible after the new fiscal year begins in July.
Killian said if they go the route of a brand new facility, it will likely be built on Wire Road next to the detention center. There is no Capital Project Sales Tax funding available to build a new Sheriff's Office, but Killian said he would like to have the project on the Capital Project Sales Tax round four ballot, which won't be voted on until 2018.
Teddy Kulmala covers the crime and courts beat for the Aiken Standard and has been with the newspaper since August 2012. He is a native of Williston and majored in communication studies at Clemson University.