Published: March 27, 2008 10:40 am            

Site selected for Whitley judicial center

By Sean Bailey / Staff Writer

Pending approval by the Whitley County Fiscal Court and the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), the new Whitley County Judicial Center has a new home.

Whitley County Judge-Executive Pat White Jr. said that the county will purchase the Williamsburg City Hall and surrounding city buildings for 15-20 percent above the AOC budgeted $980,000. White said there was contingency money from the onset of the project that will be used.

“We’re (the county) is buying the site in the center of town, and that is the goal of most of these projects,” White said, “I think most of the board is willing to give some, to acquire that site in the very center of the town.”

White said a budget variance from the AOC is currently being sought.

“[The judicial] center is a project that will affect this town for a long time. The way the funding is laid out, it’s of little or no cost to the county in construction and in maintenance,” White said.

According to White, the new judicial center will “basically include everything that is upstairs in the current court house” plus a few new additions.

“The new [judicial center plans] would leave room for an expansion into a family court and would have more than one of each of the court rooms. The center will also house things like libraries and judges’ offices and other support facilities,” White said.

In total the new judicial center will be 57,300 square feet and according to plans, the building will be three stories tall.

White feels that everyone is pretty excited about it and is personally excited about how the center is going to look.

“When you come across the bridge, that’s what you see instead of that old bank, that will be a large improvement,” White said.

Meanwhile, Williamsburg Mayor Roddy Harrison is in talks with several property owners around town, for relocation of city buildings that will be torn down for the judicial center project.

Possible sites include Gilbert Tire of which property owner Howard Jackson and the city are in talks about using the land for a new fire hall. All the talks and offers are pending approval from Frankfort.

In the meantime Harrison and his wife are working on possible plans for the new city hall building. He said he then brought the plans around to the various offices at city hall and asked for input on the design.

“It’s kind of like being a kid on Christmas Eve, you know you are going to get presents, but you really want to see what they look like,” Harrison said.

        

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