Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Law and Order in the Ozarks (Part LXXII): "New" jail now likely to be in "old" nursing home

The front page of the Nov. 3 issue of the Newton County Times is chock full of law and order news. First, it reports the arrests of four men for various thefts and burglaries. Three of the arrests were made by the Boone County Sheriff's Department action in cooperation with Newton County authorities. These three arrests involved residential and commercial burglaries in neighboring Boone County, and one suspect was also facing drug-related charges in Newton County.

The other arrest was of a 24-year-old Newton County resident, Shane Middleton. He allegedly broke into the Dollar General Store and the Jasper Farm Supply, both in Jasper. Middleton is charged with commercial burglary and theft of property and is being held without bond.

In other news, it appears that the county will move ahead with turning its old nursing home (currently an annex to the county courthouse) into the county jail. This is because the bids to build a new jail have come in substantially higher than earlier anticipated, primarily because the soil on proposed site of the new jail has proved unsuitable for a septic tank, and the site is too far from the city water system to feasibly link to it.

No comments: