Ten Florida Highway Patrol stations closed their doors today, including two in North Central Florida.
FHP's funding was cut by state lawmakers and so the stations were sacrificed.
The signs have been taken down and holes in the walls from where pictures hung are all that's left at the FHP station in Bradford County, but not for long.
Sheriff Gordon Smith is switching on the buildings utilities today. It'll cost him six thousand a year to keep the lights on.
Smith says, people driving past the station use it as a haven for information and it serves as a place of security in the community. The sheriff's office will provide new signage for the station and keep the lights on in the building that's been around for more than fifty years.
The east Palatka FHP station also closed and donations from the community will keep it up and running.
The closings are saving an estimated 700 thousand dollars a year. No troopers will lose their jobs, but the clerks and maintenance staff already have.
For the stations that don't get picked up by the community they're in, those troopers will transfer to another station to work out of.