Jail renovation is almost done
By Terry Murry on Wednesday, April 19th, 2023 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
PENDLETON – The renovation of the Umatilla County Jail is almost complete.
“On Thursday, we’re going to do the final walk through, kind of dotting I’s and crossing the T’s, and we hope at that point we’ll get the certificate of occupancy,” Sheriff Terry Rowan said.
First on his mind after that is moving the booking area out of its temporary home in a recreation area and back to where it belongs. He is also looking forward to no longer having to limit the number of inmates as they open the area that allows people suffering from addiction or behavioral health issues to be separated from the general population.
As with any remodeling project, there are still a few loose ends. For example, Rowan said some work remains to be done on the jail’s control panels.
“We now have three control panels established within the facility, so we have some redundancy there in case something goes amiss with one of them,” he said.
As for how it will feel to be able to get things back to a new normal, Rowan can’t wait.
“We’ll see how things unfold as we start occupying some of that new space,” Rowan said. “I look forward to finally seeing the project coming to an end.”
