The foundation is set for what will become the new Rockingham County building and solar array as the $77 million project is a year away from opening its doors.
The county broke ground on the three-story, 110,000-square-foot building project in June 2023 and is slated to wrap up in June 2025 on the 50-acre site. It includes a $67 million bond for the municipal building and $10 million for the solar array.
The county has received federal American Rescue Plan Act funding for the new building. A delegation of state representatives simultaneously approved a bond for its construction in 2021.
The 8,800 solar panels will become the state’s largest solar array when it goes live. Five megawatts of panels will be installed on the 14-acre field behind the new building and power the county complex.
The building will house the Registry of Deeds, County Attorney’s Office and the Sheriff’s Office. The dispatch center will also find a new home there as well as a 90-day, in-house drug treatment program for the county jail.
“This is about a year’s worth of work completed, but really a 10-year dream coming to fruition,” said Rockingham County commissioner Chairman Brian Chirichiello.
He added another component of the project has been to keep money local. The county hired Revision Solar in Brentwood to handle the solar array and Harvey Construction out of Bedford to work on the building.
County department heads have had their say in what they need out of a new space, Chirichiello said. A selling point for the new building was moving the Registry of Deeds and County Attorney Offices and upgrading their working environment.
The county pays $300,000 each year to rent the basement of Rockingham County Superior Court for the Registry of Deeds and County Attorney. That money will now go toward paying the bond.
Chirichiello said the Registry of Deeds office now has temperature control on their new floor for old paper records and proper fireproofing methods to ensure there’s no water damage in an emergency. The County Attorney’s office will now have separated spaces for privacy and case work.
The sheriff’s office and the dispatch center will occupy the first floor. A two-vehicle sally port is under construction for the Sheriff Department. A 100-seat auditorium is in the works off to the right of the main entrance.
The Registry of Deeds is set to get the top floor.
In the back, dorm rooms are under construction to house inmates in the county jail’s drug treatment program. The county will be able to expand the services to a 90-day recovery program within this new building. Once done, 80 to 90 inmates can receive treatment and stay there in the dormitories. Inmates will also have access to a kitchen and courtyard.
“It’s going to be a place where inmates will be provided with resources for them to acclimate back into society,” Chirichiello said.
If the program is not at full capacity, he said the county has the ability to help out other counties by housing inmates. This can be another source of revenue down the road, he added.
The county commissioner said the municipal building is long overdue.
“This building will bring the county and its staff into the real world,” Chirichiello said.
— ANGELINA BERUBE/EAGLE TRIBUNE
