By KARI BLURTON
Hays Post
Ellis County Administrator Greg Sund said the Law Enforcement Center’s temporary move to the former N.E.W. building, 3000 New Way, is going well — a credit he gives to the LEC staff.
“It’s wonderful how everybody is pulling together on this move and hopefully through this move and the temporary location at the former N.E.W. building and through the construction itself,” Sund said. “We will come out of this with a really good project.”
Sund added it has been been great to see how everyone is cooperating with each other, from the judges who have agreed to travel to court appearances in other cities or conduct court appearances virtually to the law enforcement staff in Trego County who are helping house Ellis County inmates.
In the first full weekend using the temporary jail location, there were some minor issues, but Sund said things have gone relatively well.
This week staff will continue to move furniture and files to the temporary offices, but the LEC will be closed Dec. 4 and 5 so other the rest of the staff can move. The building will reopen with normal office hours Dec. 8.
Sund said the week of Dec. 12, the county attorney and the courts will begin moving to their temporary offices at N.E.W. building as well.
“At that point, we will have (the LEC) move complete. … We will have the courthouse and the LEC emptied out, except for the people who will stay there throughout the construction … which are the people officed in the basement, the dispatch, fire director, IT people,” he said. “Hopefully (construction) will not be too disruptive for them.”
Sund expects the most difficult move will be when administrative staff moves to the former Commerce Bank on Main Street as that move will be a permanent one.
Sund said once construction begins, completion for the new LEC building is expected to take a year.
The LEC phone numbers and address remain the same — (785) 625-1040 for the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office and (785) 625-1050 for the jail, (785) 625-1030 for the Hays Police Department.