The $1.8-million Capt. Charles "Bo" Harrison Building is finally ready, now that a replacement water pump has been installed.
By ANNE BROACHE
Published August 11, 2004
DADE CITY - After getting the county's go-ahead, the Sheriff's Office has begun moving into its new east side digs and expects 135 personnel to be working there by Monday.
"Once we received word the building was good to go, we didn't waste any time moving in," sheriff's spokesman Doug Tobin said on Tuesday.
Office equipment started making its way into the new building during the weekend. Detectives moved in yesterday and today, and the uniformed operations patrol is scheduled to move in Thursday and Friday.
Members of the forensics, records, communications departments and civil processors will remain at the former Jackson Memorial Hospital building, which has served as the east Pasco headquarters for 18 years.
The move to the 15,723-square-foot, $1.8-million Capt. Charles "Bo" Harrison Building originally had been scheduled for early July.
Harrison, a sheriff's lieutenant on the verge of retirement, was fatally shot June 1, 2003, as he kept watch outside a Trilacoochee nightclub. Sheriff's officials posthumously promoted him to captain. A Lacoochee resident, Alfredie Steele Jr., is awaiting trial in the case.
Last week, county officials told the St. Petersburg Times that they were waiting on a replacement for a faulty water pressure pump, which they estimated would take two to three weeks.
But Facilities Management director Frank James said Tuesday that, shortly after speaking with the Times, he arranged to have another pump installed more rapidly.
"It's a smaller pump than we had originally designed," James said. "It was just to get them in there."
James estimated the pump would last five years, adding that the county has a backup pump in case this one doesn't work out.
For now, he said, it seemed to be doing the job.
"All the toilets are flushing," James said. "So far, so good."
