The town of Newborn celebrated the opening of a new public safety building with a ribbon cutting Thursday morning.

According to council member Suzie Bean the concept was a joint effort with the mayor and council and Newton County Sheriff's Deputy Doug Clifton. The purpose of the building will be a resource center that will have community awareness programs, such as neighborhood watch.

"Mayor [J.W.] Cummings has been working diligently and the sheriff has been very receptive to the idea," said Bean.

Clifton said that the center will be the center for many different things and will be used as a central location for law enforcement working in the area. For instance, if there were a car accident in the town, the parties involved could use the public safety building instead of going all the way to the NCSO. And eventually there are plans to have a computer set up to use as well.

Several members of the Newborn city council and NCSO employees, as well as Sen. John Douglas were in attendance.

"Any program the community needs will be offered by the NCSO but will be held at the public safety building," said Clifton. "The sheriff has been real adamant about getting involved in the community. This way the citizens won't have to wait."

"This is a proud moment for Newborn," said Cummings, of the safety building, which has been in the works for more than three years. The building itself had been set aside for the particular purpose of a safety building and an invitation has been extended to Morgan and Jasper counties to use the facility for their law enforcement needs, should they arise, as well.

"This is evidence of what hard work can do when we put our minds and hearts together," said NCSO Sheriff Ezell Brown, who had been working with Newborn on the building since taking office the first of the year, following in the footsteps of former Sheriff Joe Nichols, who had been working with the town on the building prior to his retirement as well.

"I have a lot of respect and pride in the community I work in," said Clifton. "This is a big benefit - not only to the town but to the county as a whole."