$18.9 million approved for new judicial center in Williamsburg

The when it will start and where it will go questions have yet to be resolved, but it appears definite that Whitley County will be getting a new judicial center in the next few years.
The General Assembly has set aside $18.9 million for construction of the new judicial center in its proposed budget for the next two years, which still has to be signed into law by Gov. Ernie Fletcher.
The 57,300 square foot judicial center will house the circuit clerk’s office, the circuit courtroom, and district courtroom, in addition to a courtroom for family court.
“We need it badly. It will be a big asset to Whitley County,” said Circuit Court Clerk Gary Barton. “All the monies used for doing this project will be state monies that come out of the judicial budget. It won’t cost the county anything as far as the project at all. It is a great project for Whitley County.”
During a special called fiscal court meeting last week, Whitley County Judge-Executive Burley Foley was authorized to sign a memorandum of agreement and documents associated with the judicial center project, which calls for it to be built sometime between 2006 and 2012.
“You can look around and see that we need one,” Foley said. “I think the real motive here is to build something brand new and nice, and separate it from county offices.”
Barton noted that on a needs assessment done by the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) Whitley County ranked 10th in terms of the county needing a new judicial center the worst.
“We right now have four judges. We have a courtroom in Corbin, a district courtroom in Williamsburg, and a circuit courtroom in Williamsburg. We have two circuit judges that have to share time in that one circuit courtroom,” Barton said. “By getting a new judicial center, we will have two courtrooms, which will allow us to keep our docket more current.”
The new judicial center will also increase the size of Barton’s office. He currently has some files stored in three different places in addition to the courthouse.
“We will be able to move all those back in with the new justice center,” Barton noted. “Security is a big factor any more with the court systems. This will have state of the art security for the courts, for transporting prisoners, and for the video arraignments from the jail.”
The county’s current video arraignment system will be upgraded when the center is built.
Foley said there is still a lot of research to be done in terms of where to build the new center.
Foley said that the fiscal court has decided not to sell the old jail because of the proposed judicial center.
While the old jail site isn’t big enough to house the 3.3-acre center, Foley said other property could be acquired beside it, or that the property could be valuable as a parking lot.
“We felt like it would be best to hold on to that, because now that this is reality and it will hopefully be located downtown, the value of that property just went from minimal to worth something,” Foley noted.
Foley said he would like to use the second floor when it is vacated to partially expand some of the county offices currently housed downstairs at the courthouse.
The judge-executive’s office is limited to four rooms, and the fiscal court meeting room. The 911 service has two rooms, while the county attorney has a one-room office at the courthouse, and the sheriff’s department is limited to two rooms. This doesn’t include space allotted to the PVA and county clerk’s office, which have more space than the other offices, but far more records to store.
A second thing Foley would like to see is to rent out some of the space upstairs in order to bring in some rental revenue.
“This would replace some of the revenues we potentially might lose. We get money from AOC for the court’s space,” Foley added.
According to the county’s budget, AOC was slated to pay $116,700 to the county this fiscal year, which largely covers rent on the courthouse’s second floor.
Foley added that he could only speculate on what the space might be used for since a new judge-executive and two new magistrates will take office next year.
“None of this is going to take place in my term. I have it started,” he noted.
In other business during Thursday’s special called meeting, the fiscal court:
• Approved the first reading of a budget amendment ordinance, which includes $148,899 in unbudgeted receipts.
County Treasurer Jeff Gray said the budget amendment includes a $50,000 PRIDE grant, and $17,190 in a grant to pay for voting machines.
“The rest of it is additional tax revenues that the sheriff’s department has collected that wasn’t budgeted,” Gray noted.
Foley added that the fiscal court also received twice as much money in back taxes for the first financial quarter of this year as compared to the same time period last year.
He estimated that over $100,000 in back taxes were collected.
• Approved subdivision plats for LoChelle Estates and Huckleberry-Hughes Subdivision.