McLennan County, TX Sheriff Larry Lynch is always talking about building a department of super crimefighters, so it seems appropriate that dark, winged guests are trying to turn the sheriff’s new offices into a bat cave.

By the time the courthouse rumor mill had worked its magic, the story was that a colony of Mexican free-tailed bats rivaling the one under the Congress Avenue bridge in Austin had taken residence in the department’s new downtown digs.

The county is spending about $1.5 million to renovate the 38,000-square-foot, four-story building donated by Atmos Energy last year. The sheriff and 130 of his 330 employees hope to move in to their new offices at 901 Washington Ave. and have an open house in late summer.

The truth of the bat tale is that workers found about five dead bats and saw two live ones in the building in recent weeks. One was caught by a county employee, who took it home and built a bat house in his backyard, Lynch said.
Lynch consulted with flying mammal experts at the Cameron Park Zoo just to be on the safe side, he said.

As the renovation continues, Lynch hopes they won’t find more bats in the belfry, or at least above the drop-down ceilings.

“It’s been pretty much business as usual,” said Bill Madson, project manager for Noresco, a Massachusetts-based company that is installing a new chiller, lighting and energy-efficient upgrades. “I have only seen one dead bat in the building. We haven’t heard anything flying around. Somebody saw one on the wall and that was it.”

So the renovation continues.

“The sheriff’s office has been in the same building here since 1952,” said Lynch, who has been there 30 of those years. “That is a long time. We will finally have everybody under one roof, except for the jail, so we are pretty excited.”

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