LUCERNE, Calif. – The Lake County Sheriff's Office unveiled its new Northshore Regional Office in a Thursday grand opening.
Community members stopped in during the day to visit the newly renovated facility, located at 6222 E. Highway 20, and enjoy refreshments, with children also getting to take home badges just for them.
“We're excited about this. This is a good thing for us. It's a good thing for the entire Northshore,” said Sheriff Rod Mitchell, who was on hand with several detectives, sergeants and members of command staff to welcome visitors.
Sgt. Dave Perry, who will oversee the office, was assigned to the project three months ago. Mitchell credited Perry with helping wrap up the building's renovations and get it open to the public.
“Essentially it will function like the main office,” said Perry.
The office, which will be open to the public from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, will have a senior volunteer to welcome visitors at the front desk, he said.
There are several computer work stations for deputies to write reports, a conference room, a back office that can be secured and used for interviews, a commander's office, sergeant's office, evidence storage and kitchen.
The facility also has an Americans with Disabilities Act-approved restroom and a ramp out front, with the latter being one of the building's transformations that required time to complete, said Mitchell.
It's not meant to be a holding facility, with arrests still requiring transport to the Lake County Jail in Lakeport, Mitchell said.
Eventually Mitchell wants to staff the office with a records clerk so people can make reports and papers for civil service can be collected there.
The office also is meant to reduce the travel time for Northshore residents, who will be able to travel to a central location once it's fully staffed, with the goal to reduce the need to travel to Lakeport.
“The Northshore will be better served by having an office here,” Mitchell said.
The building is located next door to the Northshore Fire Protection District's main office and across the street from Lucerne Harbor Park.
One of the reasons the sheriff's office jumped at the chance to buy the building, Mitchell said, is its proximity to the water, which makes it a great place for Marine Patrol staff to book evidence and write reports rather than having to go back across the lake to the main Marine Patrol facility in Buckingham.
“It's just a perfect, perfect venue for that,” he said.
Mitchell said he thinks the presence of staff – many of whom will be present at various times of their shifts – will be positive for the community.
The Board of Supervisors gave final approval for buying the building, along with a second lot at 6224 E. Highway 20, from May Noble for $300,000 in January 2008, as Lake County News has reported. The Lake County Redevelopment Agency and the sheriff's office partnered in the purchase.
Noble previously used it for a real estate office, Mitchell said.
“You did an awesome job compared to what it was,” Noble, who was on hand Thursday, said as she toured the renovated building.
Mitchell said the regional offices are meant to help improve response time and make it possible for deputies to have a place closer to their beats to stop and do reports, rather than having to go back to the main office in Lakeport.
Plans currently are to open a new Middletown regional office. Once that's done, Mitchell said the sheriff's office can pull out of the substation space it has had for many years in the Lake County Superior Court's Clearlake Division at 7000 A. South Center Drive in Clearlake.
The court has future plans to build a second courtroom and expand court clerk facilities at that building, as Lake County News has reported.
The substation there currently takes up 24 percent of the building, and Mitchell said the sheriff's office would have to pay that same percentage of the updates to the building if it stayed for very much longer, which he said he didn't feel was a good investment considering that it would only be a temporary situation.
For information about the new office, call Perry, 707-274-6713.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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