Tarrant will consider $62,000 for sheriff’s quartermaster renovation as it awaits new center

The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office is seeking $45 million in American Rescue Plan dollars to create a new regional law enforcement training center as it outgrows its space. Until then, the county’s facilities office is asking commissioners to approve more than $62,000 to renovate a nearby building to create a quartermaster’s space.

The item is included on Tuesday’s consent agenda, which usually passes without discussion unless the item is pulled off consent or if someone wants to give a public comment on the agenda item.

The quartermaster’s space at the training facility at Tarrant County Resource Connection in southeast Fort Worth is around 404 square feet and is used to hold uniforms and accessories for new hires. The space does not have enough room for fitting rooms, a checkout counter or seamstress services, according to agenda documents.

The sheriff’s office wants to move the quartermaster’s space into a 7,200-square-foot building that will be made available at Resource Connection when the public health department moves out of it in December. The public health department uses the building for storage.

Amenities planned for the new law enforcement training cent include a 4,200-square-foot quartermaster’s space, according to a site map drawing presented during a July 18 commissioners meeting.

The new quartermaster’s space is supposed to be used an interim space, county administrator G.K. Maenius told the Star-Telegram on Friday afternoon. The county will determine in the future whether it will put a new quartermaster’s space in the new training center or if the renovated space at Resource Connection will suffice.

The $62,000 renovation of the Resource Connection building the sheriff’s office hopes to get passed Tuesday will include a wall with a security roll up door, a pass through door to be installed to create a transaction counter, a security camera system, security card access installation on five doors, and a chain link fence with a walk through gate and a double drive gate for additional security.

County commissioners are waiting on the results of a feasibility study that will determine whether a new training facility is needed. They have yet to vote to build the training center.