Post by Spinaris on Apr 15, 2009 16:10:36 GMT -5
BOONVILLE, Ind. -- Crews are removing cells from an old jail in southern Indiana to reassemble them at a National Guard training center where they will serve as a mock lockup to help train troops.
Workers began jackhammering the concrete around the base of the cells at the old Boonville Jail on Monday after shutting off the building's utilities.
Each piece of the cells are being marked for later reassembly about 150 miles away at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, a National Guard complex near the Jennings County town of Butlerville.
Muscatatuck officials plan to use the cells for a "jail" being built at the center.
The 1,000-acre site was turned over to the Indiana National Guard in July 2005 and has been evolving into a full-immersion urban training environment.
As the cell-removal work began, it filled adjacent space occupied by Warrick County EMS with the sounds of hammering and pounding. EMS director Joe Gamble said he wasn't disturbed by the demolition noise in the town about 15 miles east of Evansville.
"It's like assembling a big, complicated jigsaw puzzle," he told the Evansville Courier & Press.
Sam House, the owner of the company removing the cells and reassembling them in Butlerville, said work at the old jail would be done by the end of the week.
He said the cell-removal is a good deal for both the county and the National Guard because the county had wanted the old cells removed and the Guard needed jail cells.
"So they didn't have to buy new ones, and they didn't have to pay for it," House said.
Workers began jackhammering the concrete around the base of the cells at the old Boonville Jail on Monday after shutting off the building's utilities.
Each piece of the cells are being marked for later reassembly about 150 miles away at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, a National Guard complex near the Jennings County town of Butlerville.
Muscatatuck officials plan to use the cells for a "jail" being built at the center.
The 1,000-acre site was turned over to the Indiana National Guard in July 2005 and has been evolving into a full-immersion urban training environment.
As the cell-removal work began, it filled adjacent space occupied by Warrick County EMS with the sounds of hammering and pounding. EMS director Joe Gamble said he wasn't disturbed by the demolition noise in the town about 15 miles east of Evansville.
"It's like assembling a big, complicated jigsaw puzzle," he told the Evansville Courier & Press.
Sam House, the owner of the company removing the cells and reassembling them in Butlerville, said work at the old jail would be done by the end of the week.
He said the cell-removal is a good deal for both the county and the National Guard because the county had wanted the old cells removed and the Guard needed jail cells.
"So they didn't have to buy new ones, and they didn't have to pay for it," House said.