This Saturday, April 24 the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office is encouraging the public to drop off unused medication and visit the new jail facility for another open house.

As previously reported, April 24 will be the National DEA Drug Take Back Day. The two locations where medication can be dropped off from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. are the Kroger parking lot, located at 548 Clinton Ave. in Washington C.H., and the new Fayette County Sheriff’s Office on Robinson Road in Washington C.H.

According to www.takebackday.dea.gov, “the National Prescription Drug Take Back Day addresses a crucial public safety and public health issue. According to the 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 9.7 million people misused prescription pain relievers, 4.9 million people misused prescription stimulants, and 5.9 million people misused prescription tranquilizers or sedatives in 2019. The survey also showed that a majority of misused prescription drugs were obtained from family and friends, often from the home medicine cabinet.”

Additionally, the leaders of the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office encouraged the community to visit the new jail facility this Saturday also from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The complex, located at 1500 Robinson Road S.E. in Washington C.H., includes an administrative area, a 911 call center, and a detention area.

“I feel the people of Fayette County made this possible and no one person did this,” Fayette County Sheriff Vernon Stanforth said following the first open house earlier this month. “The staff have done a tremendous job making the transition. The architects and the construction manager teams have all played a valuable role in getting this to happen. It is not a light undertaking and, in retrospect, it looked a little more daunting than what it was when we were looking forward to three years of construction. I can’t say I would want to go through it again, but it was well worth it to give the deputies a safe place to work and inmates a safe place to house. We deserved a better facility, and I think we delivered one.”

Reach Martin Graham at (740) 463-9684 or on Twitter @MartiTheNewsGuy.