HENRY COUNTY (WSLS 10) - The old DuPont plant in Henry County could be the site of the county's new jail.
County supervisors have made a tentative down payment of $50,000 for 20 acres of land on the property.
DuPont has also agreed to donate an additional 10 acres.
The county now has nine months to investigate the property to make sure it will work for the jail.
"We'll do some bores into the soil to see what's there, just things like that; kind of do our due diligence," said County Administrator Tim Hall. "Have engineers come in and say 'yeah, this pad is good' or 'it should go here.' We're talking about a healthy investment, so we want to make sure we have everything lined up before we proceed."
If it does, the $50 will be subtracted from the $500,000 DuPont is charging for the 20 acres.
"It is a Brownfield site, former industrial site, which lends itself well to this development. It's also part of our law enforcement and public safety arm. Our public safety office is there, there's a regional law enforcement training center there," Hall said.
The county plans to submit studies of the current jail to the state department of corrections in January and expects the DOC to then take about a year to determine how much state funding the county will get to build the new jail.