The first of three significant projects at the St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Department is less than a month from completion.

Sheriff Mark Lillywhite said renovation of the south half of a building previously occupied by the county’s parks and recreation department should be done before the end of July.

The open-floor area has been converted, and consists of two smaller rooms and a larger spot available for much-needed meeting space. Lillywhite said the meeting room at the sheriff’s department is woefully small, leaving few on-site options as an adequate alternative.

He said the newly-renovated space will be used in many capacities.

“Well, having a place adequate in size so we can have meetings with large groups is important, obviously, like our monthly Victim Services group meets monthly and we’ve had to meet out at the FOP lodge (east of Centreville) because of the space available there compared to what we have at the sheriff’s department,” he said. “We got some tables from Glen Oaks that they were going to throw away, and I took about 30 of them so we have tables in here for everybody and that was really helpful, very kind of Glen Oaks.”

Besides the monthly Victim Services meetings, Lillywhite said he will now have sufficient space for various sheriff’s units, including its reserve members, mounted division team and other department-related groups.

One of the two smaller rooms will give the department a place to set up its MILO unit, a “shoot/don’t shoot” video scenario that provides deputies, troopers and officers invaluable, realistic training.

The MILO unit costs about $60,000 and Lillywhite said it wasn’t meant to be treated in a portable manner. In other words, it currently has to be broken down and stored when not in use. Now, with the station set up permanently at the Centreville site, sheriff’s deputies, state police troopers and offices from local police departments can conduct exercises at any time and the MILO unit can remain in place at a secure location all the time.

In addition to the “shoot/don’t shoot” exercise, MILO also offers a de-escalation scenario.

“It’s got parts in there dealing with a character with mental illness, de-escalation on troubled people, you can talk them down from an agitated state,” he said. “It’s pretty realistic, the trigger pulls exactly the same as it does on our (pistols); a lot of the people who go through the exercises comment about the intensity even though it’s not a real situation.”

Lillywhite said the other, smaller room will be used for storage, a luxury the sheriff’s department currently doesn’t have but with just a few options it employs strategic ways to find a place for odds and ends.

“We needed this, we needed a spot just to store everything in one place centrally,” he said. “All of our training stuff is going to come out of small closets and spaces, it’s going to come over here, it’ll be spread out, it’s going to be itemized. It’ll be nice.”

Parks and recreation has relocated administrative operations to Rawson’s King Mill, freeing space for the sheriff’s department.

Covered Bridge Healthcare occupies the north portion of the building as a satellite location for office space and a meeting room. It has agreed to cover the building’s utilities.

“For the county, it’s a great partnership having Covered Bridge a part of this building,” Lillywhite said. “For law-enforcement, we joint train quite a bit so this is centrally located, it has ample space and we’re a 90-second walk from the sheriff’s department.”

The renovation is being done at a cost of about $80,000.

An unrelated project will soon be underway outside the entrance to the sheriff’s department. Lillywhite, who has been with the sheriff’s department 27 years, said the task involves re-installing safety rails to be stronger and better anchored.

In addition, new outdoor steps near the entrance will be installed and tiles in the department’s vestibule will be replaced.

Inside, the public restroom in the lobby area will be renovated and updated, Lillywhite noted.

Later this year, a $4.5 million project regarding replacement of the department’s HVAC system will start.