Corryton Community Club Unveils New KCSO Satellite Location

By Ken Leinart

Welcome to the Corryton Community. The northeast section of Knox County welcomed a new satellite office for the Knox County Sheriff's Office on Monday, Feb. 5.

The facility opened at the Corryton Community Center with a ribbon cutting, open house, and refreshments to celebrate the event.

"This is a partnership we've been wanting to do for a long time," Joyce Harrell of the Corryton Community and Senior Center said.

It was a process almost three years in the making but Harrell said residents in the community were determined to make happen.

Harrell said the Community Center and Senior Center took out a loan to move the Rural Metro Fire Department station that was housed there to an empty office space behind the center to free up the space for the sheriff's office.

Officers of the community and senior center said the center will do what it always does to pay off the note: hold chili suppers, spaghetti dinners, and whatever it takes to make the venture successful.

"Jo (Longmire) asked us about three years ago if we would be interested in an office out here and we came and looked around and said, 'We'd love to,'" Knox County Sheriff Tom Spangler said. "He (Longmire) said, 'We're going to make it happen.'"

Jo Longmire is a member of the Corryton Community and Senior Center board.

While the Corryton office will not be a fully staffed "precinct," such as those in Halls and in west Knox County, Spangler said manning the new office space is something that could happen in the future.

"It's not set up as a precinct, but it gives officers a chance to take a break when needed," Spangler said.

"The officers who run this beat out here will certainly be happy to have a place to go. It's hard when you're in a car for eight, 10 hours at a time and to have somewhere to take a break will mean an awful lot."

Spangler said the new facility will also allow his deputies to debrief themselves, make phone calls, whatever is needed without leaving the beat.

The Corryton station holds an office space for doing reports, a kitchen, and restroom facilities.

"It's a haul from downtown to out here. It's a haul from anywhere out here," Spangler said.

"But this is part of our community and we are – the sheriff's office – going to protect this community. We are continually working – as far as our beats are concerned – on the protection we give to our communities," he said.

The new office makes working the rural beat of Corryton a little easier for the officers whose task that is.