The Hernando County Detention Center is getting closer to being completely renovated.

  • $2 million already spent to renovate cell areas
  • Piping, plumbing throughout building need attention
  • Inmates have helped with many of the renovations
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Sheriff Al Nienhuis announced on June 22 he'd saved about $2 million from funds the Sheriff's Office received for housing federal inmates to go towards the ongoing renovation effort.

Officials at the detention center say they actually have just over $700,000 remaining from funds county commissioners gave them when they took over operations about seven years ago. They hope that money, when paired with the $2 million Nienhuis has set aside, will be enough to get some necessary projects completed.

Initial studies suggested tearing down the detention center and completely rebuilding it, which would have cost about $15 million. Instead, however, the county allocated $3 million to a renovation effort.

So far, just over $2 million of that allocation has been used to renovate cell areas, restore flooring, and completely re-do the medical wing. Now, officials say they need to re work some of the piping and plumbing throughout the building as well as extend the sally port, which they hope to do with the remaining $700,000.

Photo: Hernando County Sheriff's Office

As for the $2 million from Nienhuis, Captain Shaun Kluznik says there's still plenty of items those funds could go towards.

"Well I'm hoping half of it will go right back to the building," Kluznik said. "We still need to replace some air conditioners. We do have problematic roofing in some places. That's mostly the responsibility of the county -- county maintenance handles all that, the big items."

"The other half we're hoping will go towards technology, upgrading our camera system," he continued. "Some of our cameras are still analog and it's difficult to keep them up and running."

There's been no official word yet on when those projects might be completed.

Sheriff's Office officials did tell us they're doing everything they can to limit the cost to taxpayers, including having inmates help with many of the renovations.