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New courts building back on the drawing board

Feb 20, 2008

County commissioners once again are making plans to ask voters to approve bonds for a new courts building.

“We’re stymied now. We can’t grow,” County Judge Wayne Gent said Tuesday. “We can’t grow in the DAs office. We can’t grow in indigent defense.”

Commissioners plan to visit a new courts building in Belton, Bell County, Feb. 29 to get ideas for a possible building in Kaufman. That building has five courtrooms.

Past plans have called for a new courts building next to the county jail on Highway 175. It would house several new courtrooms, and the county offices to support them.

It would be connected to the jail and would cut down on the cost and security risks of moving prisoners to court, commissioners have said.

They have been trying to get begin a new building for years. The court first planned to issue $20 million in certificates of obligation to fund a building, but a residents’ petition stopped the move at the last minute.

The critics said the money should be put to a vote.

They then proposed a $21.5 million bond to pay for the project, but the proposition failed in May, 2006.

The county then renovated an old jail building at a cost of about $2 million, adding a courtroom and moving several county departments. That freed up space at the courthouse on the Kaufman square, allowing the construction of an additional courtroom.

But that space is gone, commissioners say.

“I think we did a great job in ’06,” Pct. 1 Commissioner Jerry Rowden said at a candidate forum Monday night. He is running for re-election. “Room is at a premium on the square.”

He is opposed in the Republican primary by John Short, who did not attend the forum.

Pct. 3 Commissioner Ken Schoen, who also is running for re-election, pointed out that if the certificates of obligation had not been stopped, the building would be half paid off and would have cost half as much. “We’re going to have to spend a lot more money today.”

But Joe Parnell, who is running in the Democratic primary for the Pct. 3 seat, said he is proud of having helped stopped those certificates. “We didn’t need the courts. We couldn’t afford the courts.”

He said the commissioners’ renovation of the old jail into new offices proves the point. He suggested that the county continue adding to the old jail as additional space is needed.

J. C. Jackson, also a Pct. 3 commissioner candidate, said he also opposes a new courts building.

The third Democratic Pct. 3 candidate, Wanda Greer Ransom, said she worked at the courthouse in the early ‘90s and “we were overcrowded then.” She said she supports a new building.

Terry Darst, Mr. Schoen’s Republican opponent, said he hasn’t looked closely at the issue, but “based on what I hear, they are out of space and we need to find a way to do it.”

Glenn Walker, a Democratic Pct. 1 candidate, said all other options need to be exhausted before there is any new building. “We can do something for less than $12 million.”

Democratic Pct. 1 candidate George Mayfield did not attend.

Judge Gent stressed that planning for a possible courts building has just begun. Commissioners have not discussed a date for a bond election, but November would be the earliest it could happen, he said.

He said commissioners have discussed putting criminal courts in the new building, along with support services. This would give all the advantages of placing the courts near the jail, but also would leave services used by other residents in the main courthouse.


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