“This has been a long, long time coming,” Palmer said. “We’ll mark a day on the calendar today when we break ground, but the real exciting day will be 15 months from now when we come back here to cut the ribbon and move in and start operating a jail — one that we can all be proud of and that we can go forward with.”
Allred agreed with Palmer on how momentous the groundbreaking was.
“This is like the biggest thing for us,” Allred said. “I don’t want to be known for anything else in life. As far as putting Graham County on a map, let’s just let it be this and be good.”
The county had been attempting to build a jail for roughly the last 14 years. The current structure was built in the 1930s to serve as the garage and maintenance shop for the National Guard Armory vehicles. The building was converted into a jail in the early 1970s, when the first dormitories were built. The board has yet to decide what to do with the property after the new facility is built...
