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Courthouse dispute hits another snag

The Historical Society doesn't want other officials present when it tries to work out its differences with the Clerk of the Circuit Court.

By CATHERINE E. SHOICHET
Published August 18, 2005

A dispute over space in the Historic Courthouse should be resolved by the Historical Society and the Clerk of the Circuit Court's Office without the presence of other county officials, the society's president said Wednesday.

At its meeting last week, the County Commission voted for representatives from the two parties to meet Aug. 30 with commission Chairwoman Vicki Phillips, County Administrator Richard Wesch and County Attorney Robert Battista to settle their differences. County officials also planned to discuss renegotiating the society's lease agreement for the old courthouse at the Aug. 30 meeting.

But the society's representatives will not attend the Aug. 30 meeting, Historical Society president Jon Piersall wrote in a letter delivered to county officials Wednesday afternoon. Instead, he wrote, representatives from the group's newly established negotiating committee plan to arrange a private meeting with Clerk of the Circuit Court Betty Strifler and her staff.

The negotiating committee chairman, Allen O. Beasley, will plan the meeting and pick several members of the society to attend, Piersall said.

"At this stage in the game, there's been an awful lot of talk," Piersall said. "A new face on our side might be beneficial."

Renegotiating the lease, he said, is a separate issue that should be discussed at a separate meeting.

Strifler could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

A standoff between the Historical Society and the clerk began in February, when Strifler asked the society to move its office from the archives area of the old courthouse, where a deputy clerk from her office currently works.

Society officials contend that the presence of a deputy clerk and records from the clerk's office in the building violate the terms of the Historical Society's lease of the property, which says that the building "will not be used for county offices, excepting the Office of Historical Resources."

Strifler has said that the clerk must be there because state law says her office is the custodian of the county's historical records.

Shortly after receiving Piersall's letter Wednesday afternoon, Phillips said negotiating a solution would not be easy.

"I don't think it's anything that can't be overcome . . . . I don't know what the solution is now," she said.

After last week's commission meeting, Piersall and other society officials said they were disappointed that the commission did not take a stand to enforce the lease agreement. Piersall said Wednesday that his feelings about the meeting remain the same, but he said the society would like to work out a deal.

In an interview Wednesday, Piersall said the Historical Society had recently heard about extra storage space budgeted for the clerk in the proposed 2006 budget. That space, he said, may help the two parties develop an agreement.

"New information has come to our attention which can be of benefit to both the Clerk of the Courts and to the Historical Society in resolving our current situation," Piersall wrote in the letter.

Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at cshoichet@sptimes.com or 860-7309.

[Last modified August 18, 2005, 01:04:14]