WOODVILLE &045; Planning is under way to relocate the Wilkinson County Sheriff’s Department and Justice Court offices in new quarters on U.S. 61 South.

With input from Sheriff Reginald Jackson and computer consultant Reed Herring of Woodville-based Herring Appraisal and Computer Services, Inc., county supervisors agreed Monday to begin preparations for the two agencies to move into a brick office building formerly owned by local businessman Julius Carter.

In 2000, the county used a $300,000 Community Development Block Grant to buy the Carter building and a modular jail, which was acquired from Grenada County and positioned next to the new law enforcement center.

On Monday, supervisors formally named the site the Wilkinson County Law Enforcement Complex Center and voted to pay for some necessary modifications at the center to effect the move.

Herring said considerable planning will be required to properly wire the telecommunications and computer systems involved in the transfer.

&uot;I’ve got an IBM man that will be with me in the morning to look at what we’ve got to do to re-cable the facility that we’ve got here now and also to see what it’s going to take as far as the phone lines, modems, controllers and things like that to get down to the (new) building,&uot; said Herring, who asked county officials to decide which offices each department would occupy.

Supervisors agreed to move the county purchasing clerk’s office into the rooms vacated by the justice court staff in the courthouse annex.

Jackson said his department must maintain an office in the courthouse.

&uot;By statute, I have to maintain radio communications with NCIC.

We are going to move 911, and the other emergency lines, but we will maintain standard radio communications here,&uot; said Jackson, adding that a separate agency will be responsible for re-locating the E-911 system.

Electricians were working at the center on Wednesday, wiring the building for telecommunications and computers.

Supervisors also recognized some repairs or additions to the modular jail will be necessary before the county prisoners can be transferred,

and appointed a committee to research funding for that project.

The committee, which includes Jackson, board president Kirk Smith, chancery clerk Thomas Tolliver, purchasing clerk Consandra Stewart and board member W.G. Johnson, will make recommendations to the Board of Supervisors.

In other action, Derrick Johnson of D.L. Johnson Consultants, LLC of Jackson, who was retained by the county to assist with redistricting plans following the 2000 Census, advised the board no changes would needed in the current justice court boundaries.

Johnson said since the justice court districts are within the 10 percent population deviation allowed by federal law, no changes will be required in those lines.

The board voted last fall to redraw the county’s supervisor district lines to comply with federal laws.

Johnson said all of the county’s redistricting plans would be forwarded to the U.S. Justice Department for approval this week.