RBC | U.S. Senators John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet last week announced that $350,000 has been earmarked for Rio Blanco County’s proposed plan to create a law enforcement training center in the former county detention center. The funds are included in the $1.7 trillion federal funding bill for 2023 passed in the U.S. Senate on Dec. 22 and in the U.S. House of Representatives on Dec. 24, 2022.
The county jail was completed in 2016 and is paid for in full — no debt was incurred by the county in building the justice center which houses the jail, the county courtrooms, and dispatch. The jail was built in part to address overcrowding in the old courthouse detention area which accommodated 18 inmates, for the past few years the jail has been chronically empty, prompting Sheriff Anthony Mazzola to make the decision to close the county jail facility late in 2021 and begin transporting inmates to Moffat County and housing them there. The decision, which proved controversial, has reportedly saved the county more than $500,000.
The idea for creating a law enforcement training center, where officers from around the region could utilize the site for hands-on practical training, stemmed from the discussion of what to do with the facility if it wasn’t being used to hold inmates.
The county applied for a grant through the State of Colorado’s Office of Just Transition, a program designed to assist counties and municipalities impacted by the loss of fossil fuel extraction revenue, but was not awarded the funding for the project.
With federal funding now set aside for the project, the county can move forward with the plan to transform the empty jail into a state-of-the-art regional training facility.
By NIKI TURNER – editor@editorht1885.com
