Fisher County Sheriff Simon Wade spoke to county commissioners on Tuesday, discussing a possible repurposing of the old county jail with the idea of possibly leasing the building to the county’s historical commission.
Since his appointment to the office of sheriff only 90 days ago, Sheriff Wade said he has been engrossed in learning as much as he can about the county he now serves. He began reading through old history books and visiting the county museum.
“One of the first things I did was I bought a history book on Fisher County. It’s the first 107,” explained Wade, saying one of the things that intrigued him about the book was an old picture of the 1970 sheriff’s posse. “Man, those guys looked good. They’re all on their horses, in uniform in front of the Rotan Gin. They look awesome.”
As he has been looking into purchasing a new uniform for the deputies, he began doing a bit of research into the history of the local law enforcement attire. He later took a walkthrough of the old 1928 jail that still stands on the main courthouse grounds.
Wade was captivated by the history of the old building and inquired as to whether the county still owned it and if it was still within his purview.
“That three-story jail right there isn’t going to be repurposed for anything. It’s not going to be an additional county clerk's office.”
He learned about the sheriff and deputy who were killed in the line of duty after apprehending suspects in the theft of cotton seed in 1927, a year before construction on the old jail was completed.
After peering through the window, seeing the old chuck wagon, and sheriff’s posse memorabilia, he later visited the museum.
“If you haven’t been in the museum, it’s phenomenal. It’s really big, all the way to the back and two stories,” said Wade, talking about having the chance to speak before the historical commission, where an idea formed. “Why don’t we take this old jail and rip all the wires off and all this twentiethcentury nonsense, and either restore it, or lease it to the historical society.”
Wade’s idea would be to look into state funding or grants for assistance regarding a few different possibilities, maybe even generating revenue to create a part-time museum curator position. Either way, Wade said while he isn’t sure about the particulars of how a lease would work, he believes it to be a good idea to allow the building to be used by someone who could use the space and has an application for history.
The commissioner explained how that when the new jail opened in 2016, the department simply walked out, leaving much of the old items in place.
As a result, despite later efforts to clean out the old building, the facility remains full of junked items and old equipment.
Additionally, while delivering pallets of copy paper to the Fisher County Courthouse in 2019, a box truck struck the power lines on the west side of the courthouse. The lines were dislodged from the power pole, which was significantly damaged in the process.
The courthouse was without power for two days while the repairs were being made. However, electricity was never restored to the old jail, which was also affected by the damage. Nevertheless, officials agreed that restoring power would be reasonably easy to accomplish.
Roenna Thomas, secretary of the historical commission, spoke to the court. She explained that membership has dropped in the past few years, and they do not have the people to clean the building, but they are in desperate need of storage.
“When we repopulate the jail, and we bring inmates back down here, I can get work details to clean up,” assured Wade. “We can use a lot of labor that won’t cost the county anything.”
The Historical Commission has been looking into possibly purchasing a building to use as storage, but as the old jail is a historical building, it would be a good fit should the court agree. “We would love to take it, if we can, and can get your help,” said Dot Harris, also with the society. “We can keep that old jail because it is historic.”
While the court was not able to take any official action on Tuesday, officials and citizens were on the same page when it came to making use of the old building. Commissioner Gordon Pippin said that he and Judge Holt—who had to leave for a doctor’s appointment just before the discussions began—were looking into ways to address many of the issues raised.
Officials agreed that drawing up a lease agreement would be fairly easy and that it would be better for the building to be used instead of sitting empty and deteriorating. It is possible the discussion will be revisited again when the court meets again next month.