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Porterdale Police Department celebrates new building with ribbon-cutting
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PORTERDALE, Ga. — The Porterdale Police Department cut the ribbon on its new building on Friday, Nov. 22, with many county officials and citizens in attendance. 

Mayor Arline Chapman, Newton County Chairman Marcello Banes and Porterdale police Chief Jason Cripps all spoke at the ribbon-cutting ceremony along with the civil engineer who helped design the building.

Each talked about the importance of the Police Department and the process that went into having this building come to be.

Cripps had nothing but thanks to give to the many people who helped the Police Department's new building as it became their own building, which had not been the case in the past. 

Before the ribbon-cutting ceremony began, Cripps went around to everyone in attendance and thanked them for being at this most special event. He came off as genuinely grateful throughout the event and thanked some officials for their help in securing the establishment of this facility.

"Our mayor and council had a council meeting, and they said, 'Hey, you should see the condition of the current Police Department,' so they all got up, in the middle of a council meeting, and they all walked down and looked at it and they said, 'We have to do something quickly,'" he said. "Within 90 days, we put a plan together, and we already had a drawing ready, and Marty Boyd, our civil engineer, brought us to where we're at."

This building came from Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax money, and Cripps made it known he made sure to use that money to the best of his ability to help come up with the best building for the city. He made it evident that he was most happy with how much this brings the police department forward and brings them more up to date.

"We went from 600 square feet to now 2,000 square feet. Man, it's nice we're going to have a secured lot now, we're going to have everything secured. We have some privacy now with the privacy fence. We have a generator now, so we don't have to have candles now. We have everything we need," he said. "This takes us from the '80s to the 2030s."