The remodeling of the old Winn Dixie store next to J&B's Steakhouse, that will be the new Vidalia Police Department, is still in process.
"Our offices were actually cells in an old jail," explained Detective Jimmy Sims. "There are no windows and there are only a couple of ways in and out."
They'll move from their current 4,000 square foot building to 17,000 square feet in a complex that will also a new city council meeting room and a city court room. That new complex will make a home out of a former Winn Dixie supermarket.
The police department's side of the complex will include a training room with simulators for shooting and driving. It will feature a larger evidence room, multiple rooms to interview victims or witnesses as well as secured rooms for suspects. City leaders said they'd been debating a new building for a decade. The available supermarket building saved them construction time and money. "We'd be hard pressed to get this finished from scratch for $5 million, it would be more like $6 million," noted city manager Bill Torrence. "So we're happy to get it for $3 million." In addition, they're doing the project without incurring debt. The money comes from revenues in a local option sales tax.