Renovation work on the prison kitchen completed before the end of the summer

The good news? Staff won't have to drive down the road to use a kitchen to serve the hundreds of inmates who are housed – temporarily or otherwise – in the Polk County Jail.

At the beginning of the year, the county commission approved funds for renovations at the Polk County Jail. These were completed in the last few days and will allow normal kitchen operations to resume.

The work was performed in parallel with the regular maintenance duties of Sheriff's Office Maintenance Manager Tim Tolbert and Maintenance Technician Greg Mason.

“In addition to overseeing routine maintenance and day-to-day upkeep of the facility, Tolbert and Mason have worked tirelessly to bring this project to completion,” the county said in a news release. “Thank you for your hard work, gentlemen.”

During the summer renovations, prison staff received assistance from the Polk School District by allowing food preparation in the Cedartown Middle School kitchen.

“Dr. Thomas and the staff at Cedartown Middle School were kind enough to make their space available to us so we can continue to provide needed meals,” the district posted on social media Tuesday and later in a press release about the updated kitchen operations. “Our team is sincerely grateful for the generosity and accommodating nature of helping us complete this project on time.”

The work on the Polk County Jail's kitchens is one of several renovations currently underway at the facility.

Earlier this year, Sheriff Moats and the county commission clashed over the condition of some of the jail cells used to house inmates, and it resulted in work already underway that the county had not immediately approved.

The county later approved a $1.3 million spending package to renovate the building pods to create more housing at the facility.

Photos provided by Olivia Smith, Polk County's new public information officer. – KtE