© 2024 WVIK
Listen at 90.3 FM and 98.3 FM in the Quad Cities, 95.9 FM in Dubuque, or on the WVIK app!
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Government

Scott County Opens New Patrol Headquarters

WVIK News
Scott County Sheriff Tim Lane greets local residents as they line up to tour the new patrol headquarters.
Credit WVIK News
Sheriff Tim Lane at the new patrol headquarters.

After years of planning, the Scott County Sheriff's Office has opened a new headquarters for its patrol division. Tuesday, department and county officials cut a ribbon on South 16th Avenue in Eldridge, just off Highway 61.

Sheriff Tim Lane says it cost time and money for patrol deputies to drive back and forth — first to downtown Davenport, then to what was considered a temporary building on Tremont Avenue in north Davenport in 1994. 

"Most of the work that we do in patrol is out in the rural parts of Scott County and the small towns. So what we need is a central location that has quick access to the highways - quick access to the north-south and east-west highways."

Lane says the new patrol headquarters has more space — for larger offices, to store evidence, an exercise room, and a room for training and roll calls. But his favorite feature is the garage. 

Credit WVIK News
Scott County Board chair Carol Earnhardt preparing to cut the ribbon.

"For years and years deputies have gone out and chipped the ice off their cars before they could answer an emergency call. They came in and out in the rain and wind - everything that came with the weather. And we were vulnerable to vandalism to county-owned equipment, taxpayer-owned equipment."

It will also be much safer for the deputies to go in and out of the new building.

It cost $4.5 million, and Sheriff Lane estimates the yearly savings from the new building will be equivalent to the cost of one, full-time deputy.
 

A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois.