News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Dekalb County Mayor Matt Adcock is trying to acquire 38 acres of land in the middle of Smithville in order to build a Criminal Justice Center.
Adcock said that he found the parcel of land while looking through Tennessee Property Viewer for candidates for a Justice Center. Adcock said the property is located off Anthony Street and is the best option for the county to engage in much-needed expansion.
“In order to have a Criminal Justice Center, that facility has to be in the city limits and this is going to be quite large of a facility that’s going to have a jail and courtrooms, so it needed to be large in size,” Adcock said. “And finding a large parcel of land in the city limits is very difficult.”
Adcock said that it was increasingly difficult to find a piece of land this large that was wholly undeveloped. Adcock said the Justice Center probably won’t need 38 acres, but told the County Commission the land allows DeKalb to invest.
“In 30 years or more if we run into an overcrowding problem in the jail again we can always have more room outside to expand,” Adcock said. “That’s kind of what stopped us where we are right now, the jail we have we can’t expand with, we’re landlocked and we can’t build up.”
Adcock said that DeKalb could do many different types of future projects with the land he’s spotted. Adcock said that he is currently waiting for a commercial appraiser to come out and evaluate the property.
“Once that appraisal is completed and we find a fair market value, we will be making an offer to the seller for that price,” Adcock said. “And if all goes well we’ll go through with it and purchase it.”
Adcock said that the next steps after hopefully purchasing the property include different land testing to plan out construction. Adcock said that DeKalb would use the money they receive from logging the trees on the property would go back into the project. Adcock said if the project goes without any difficulties, he hopes that by this time next year, construction for the Justice Center will begin.
