Jordan Beck | Daily Press Deputy Steve Kositzky inspects a road patrol K-9 vehicle that caught on fire earlier this week in the patrol garage at the new Delta County Correctional Facility Thursday.

ESCANABA — Efforts to open the new Delta County Correctional Facility have continued with the recent move of Delta County’s road patrol to the facility.

According to Delta County Sheriff Ed Oswald, road patrol officers primarily operate out of their patrol cars. These officers now spend much of their time not spent on the road at the new correctional facility, which is located at the Delta County Service Center.

“Night shift’s been here a little longer than day shift,” he said.

Road patrol officers working on the night shift were based out of the new facility “weeks ago,” Oswald said. Day shift officers have been moving to the new facility whenever they have had time, and have now mostly transferred over there. Lt. Todd Tardiff is still splitting his time between the two facilities, and Lt. Dan Johnson has not yet moved.

Most of the road patrol’s equipment has been moved to the new facility, as well. Some things, including the contents of the evidence room, still need to be transferred.

Oswald said the road patrol still has a few computers at the old correctional facility in case they need to handle a complaint while they are there. However, this does not mean the patrol is maintaining a consistent presence at the facility.

“For the most part, if the public goes to the old facility, they will not find a road patrol officer there,” he said.

The sheriff’s department was initially planning to be stationed in the new correctional facility much earlier than mid-2019.

“We expected to be in here … in October (2018),” Oswald said.

Delta County’s budget for the 2018-19 fiscal year assumed the new correctional facility would be open by March 1. Due to the financial impact of delays in opening the facility, the county’s finance committee ­recommended the approval of a budget amendment that would move almost $100,000 from the county’s general fund balance to the corrections budget at a recent meeting.

A number of minor issues played a role in pushing the new correctional facility’s opening back. These included problems with electrical lines and cell heating, among others.

Despite the difficulties in getting the new correctional facility ready to open, Oswald said he was glad the county did not rush to open it before most of the facility’s issues had been fixed.

“I’m happy it turned out the way it did,” he said.

Along with covering costs associated with running two correctional facilities for months more than was originally planned, some funds from the budget amendment will go towards repairs that were needed to keep the old correctional facility operational until the new facility was ready for occupancy. Oswald said issues that had to be dealt with at the old facility included broken windows and locks, heating problems and the need to replace pumps in the facility’s basement.

Training for work at the new correctional facility begins next week for corrections officers. Corrections officers and inmates are expected to move into the new facility by the end of next month.

According to Oswald, the move will be a major transition.

“For corrections officers, it’s like quitting one job and starting another,” he said.

Officers’ daily duties will be entirely different at the new facility. In communities across the country where correctional facility transfers similar to the one happening in Delta County have taken place, Oswald said data shows corrections departments’ staffs have shrunk by 20 percent — a result of employees deciding to quit.

According to Oswald, he is hoping to avoid this at the Delta County Correctional Facility. To this end, concepts officers will use at the new facility are being introduced while these officers are still working at the old facility.

Officers have been letting inmates know about the changes they can expect to take place after the move. Oswald said inmates have been well-behaved as of late, largely because of plans to introduce a classification system at the new facility.

“They want to have a low classification — that would allow them more privileges,” he said.