ROME TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- Within the next month or so, a satellite office for the Lawrence County Sheriff's Department should be open, thanks to the work of several dozen students and instructors at Collins Career Center.
The vocational school students "did a little bit of everything" to help get a building adjacent to the Fairland Board of Education headquarters ready for sheriff's deputies, said Dan French, a building maintenance instructor at Collins.
"It's good experience for them," French said Monday. Five of his students participated in the project over the past six months.
Sheriff Tim Sexton treated more than a dozen students and instructors to lunch at Ponderosa west of Chesapeake earlier this week. The 800-square-feet building that used to be part of the old Locks and Dam No. 27 complex is more than 95 percent finished. Some painting and exterior work remains to be done along with providing a computer and some desks, he said.
"We're doing this at no cost to the taxpayer," Sexton said of the substation office where deputies can meet with victims and suspects and write up reports. Money for materials was provided by the federal government from forfeitures in drug cases, he said.
"It will give us a bigger presence in the eastern part of the county," Sexton said. The satellite office will allow officers to spend more time in that part of the county instead of heading back to the sheriff's department to file reports as they do now, he said.
The satellite office isn't a 24-hour, around the clock operation, Sexton added.
"Funding won't allow that," he said. "We've been working on this for more than a year. We also want to see if the Ohio Highway Patrol can put a breathalyzer up there."
Chris Jackson, a Fairland High School senior who attends Collins, said a number of carpentry students worked on the satellite office building 25 to 30 times.
"We were up there three weeks straight one time," he said. "We built ramps, drop ceilings and walls. It was basic remodeling. We learned a lot."
"It was good experience," said Andrew Jacobi, a South Point High School junior attending Collins.
Corey Layman, another South Point junior, said he learned how to do drywall and build a drop ceiling.
"It was good job training for them," said Matt Parnell, a carpentry instructor who had about 20 students working on the project. "They built a handicapped accessible ramp, they framed up walls, they hung drywall and put in a drop ceiling, among other things. It was very good experience for them."
Collins Career students have to do community service projects and this one qualified, he said.
"They also learned to work together," Parnell said.
Wes Menshouse, a heating and air conditioning instructor, has about 14 of his students working on the project.
"They did electrical work and plumbing," he said. "We installed the air conditioning and did the duct work on the furnace. It's an excellent project and something they'll remember for awhile."
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