Sheriff's Crestview office space dedicated

Okaloosa County Sheriff Larry Ashley opened the doors to the Judge Joe N. Livingston Jr. Building in Crestview on Thursday afternoon.

The former Florida Highway Patrol building will be used for sheriff's administrative and support functions in north Okaloosa County. The building will also provide office space for deputies, as well as space for additional Guardian Ad Litem offices, Ashley said.

"When the Florida Highway Patrol announced that this office was closing, we started looking into the possibilities of leasing the facility from the state and we secured the 4,000 square foot building for $300 a year," Ashley said. "All of the renovation was done with inmate labor and the renovation costs were paid from drug forfeiture funds so this beautiful and needed office cost the tax payers zero."

Requests for copies of reports will be processed out of the facility.

"This is a force multiplier for us as it is on the busiest intersection in Crestview, adjacent to the Okaloosa County Courthouse," Ashley said. "There is parking and the communication tower is here for convenience of transmittal of reports, evidence gathered and other paperwork."

A workspace area will also be made available to officers with state law enforcement officers, such as the Florida Highway Patrol and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The building is named for Judge Joe N. Livingston Jr., a longtime Florida Highway Patrol trooper, supervisor and district commander until his retirement in 1963. He was elected as an Okaloosa County judge the following year and reelected to a second term four years later. He was a seated judge when he died in 1971, along with his daughter Ann, in a traffic accident.

Livingston's grandson, Ron Livingston, a third generation FHP officer, took part in the dedication ceremony.

Helen Hunt Rigdon, district representative for U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Chumuckla, was also present for the dedication. She used to work in the building.

"In 1970, I was one of the first female hires for the state of Florida as a driver's license test examiner and this is the office we worked out of," Rigdon said. "As a matter of fact, there is half a brick on a raised shrubbery bed in the front right-hand side of the building. I know this because I was giving the test for the driver that hit the planter with the car. I said, 'Stop,' but she didn't stop the car until she hit the planter."