Bates County Sheriff's Press Release: Storage Building Bought

 

The Bates County Sheriff’s Office has entered into a lease agreement with the property owner located at 905 N Orange, Butler Mo 64730.  The decision to lease the property came after the County had researched constructing a 40 x 60 storage building on a piece of property the County owns in Butler.  Preliminary prices ranged from $60,000 and up.  This caused the County to weigh the option of a pre-existing building.  The lease is a four year lease with the County taking ownership at the end of the lease term.  The lease will be paid for out of the Sheriff’s Office yearly budget.  Careful budget considerations were given when making the decision to enter into the lease.  Since 2009, the Sheriff’s Office has been able to expand its services to the community while consistently ending each year under budget by at least $250,000.00. 

 

The purpose of constructing a building was for storage of Sheriff’s Office equipment along with a place to process seized motor vehicles during investigations and records storage. The Sheriff’s Office has had to rent storage buildings due to storage needs changed since the building was constructed in 2004. 

 

The leased building, located at 905 N Orange was originally the Coca-Cola building and later Kelly’s Trucking before becoming storage for Prospect Rentals.  The building will see a new life with multiple purposes to include storage facility, vehicle processing facility and storage, along with records storage and K9 training facility. 

 

The building is large enough to support the Sheriff’s Office inmate work programs that were started this summer.  Currently the Sheriff’s Office utilizes volunteer inmates to perform community service projects like replacing the bleacher seats at the fairgrounds, picking up trash and mowing yards to name a few.  There are plans to expand the inmate work program giving inmates trade skills before being released back into the community.  The pilot program will start out with volunteers in each industry teaching inmates carpentry skills with future plans to add metal fabrication. 

 

Sheriff Anderson says, “This building will allow for us to combine our storage buildings into one, saving the county money in the long run.  The other benefit is that we are able to expand inmate programs, hopefully teaching them a skilled trade that they can use later to become a productive member of society.  Reducing recidivism of inmates will minimize the financial drain on the jail system.  Helping people become productive members of society will also make Bates County a better place to live”.