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Workers prepare for courthouse project
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET
© St. Petersburg Times, INVERNESS -- The courthouse addition project kicked off Tuesday with little fanfare and no noticeable changes, as workers looked over the site and made plans to start construction. By May 2002, the parking lot behind the courthouse will be transformed into a 40,000-square-foot wing, nearly doubling the size of the courthouse. Then workers will renovate the existing courthouse, a 57,818-square-foot building from the late 1970s, to provide more space for everyone from public defenders to property appraisers. Though outwardly uneventful, the official start of the courthouse construction project Tuesday was a milestone of sorts. Plagued by delays and vacillating cost estimates over the past four years, the project finally has a completion date of March 2003 and an $8-million price tag, well under the county's $9.2-million budget. "This has been a long-awaited project, and I'm very anxious to see it get going," Commissioner Gary Bartell said. The new three-story building will include four full-size courtrooms with adjacent judges' suites, a jury assembly room, a prisoner-holding area, and the clerk of courts' records, county architect Tom Williford said. The existing courthouse will keep one of its full-size courtrooms on the third floor. The remaining space will be renovated into an expanded State Attorney's Office and new digs for the Public Defender's Office, which will vacate its half of the Coca-Cola building. The renovations will also add 725 square feet to the Property Appraiser's Office and another 1,180 square feet to the Tax Collector's Office in the existing courthouse building. The Supervisor of Elections, located in the nearby Coca-Cola building, will gain a 1,656-square-foot warehouse in the coming months and another 1,328 square feet when the Public Defender moves out of the building and into the renovated courthouse. Even with all of that added space, officials in the courthouse have said from the start that a 40,000-square-foot addition will meet the needs of their growing offices for just a few years. Their complaints have given commissioners pause to rethink the plan over the years. Most recently, Commissioner Josh Wooten voted against the May 8 motion to award the construction contract to Dooley & Mack Constructors Inc., saying the county should not build a facility that does not provide the needed space for the long haul. "We had the judiciary, the tax collector, the property appraiser and the sheriff all saying they don't have enough space," Wooten said. "So I was saying: Why are we (awarding) this contract to build an addition that's too small without doing a comprehensive study about our space needs?" But Commission Chairman Roger Batchelor sees the courthouse project as a big first step in meeting the long-term space needs. The next step, he said, may be moving the property appraiser and tax collector out of the courthouse -- one of several options that county staffers are exploring at the commission's request. "I think that's going to happen, that we're going to relocate one or both of those offices," Batchelor said. "And when we do that, I think (the expanded courthouse) will suffice for quite some time into the future." The project's price tag started in December 1998 at $7.5-million and later rose as high as $11-million, but the contract approved this month by commissioners came in at $7,920,930. A last-minute change order, which covered moving the courthouse's radio tower, brought the total project cost up to $8,039,052. The county has taken out two loans to cover construction costs, said Cathy Taylor, director of management and budget. Using some revenue from court fines and filing fees, as well as money from the general fund, the county will pay $920,000 a year in debt service for the next 20 years, Taylor said. Construction will bring extra noise, dust and other inconveniences, said director of courts John Sullivan. Visitors will not be able to use the rear entrance on Dr. Martin Luther King Avenue, and no parking will be allowed in the lot behind the courthouse, although other parking is available by the Sheriff's Office. "As the saying goes, you've got to break eggs to make an omelet," Sullivan said. But as a member of the Inverness City Council, Sullivan welcomes the courthouse project as a sign that the county is committed to keeping its facilities in Inverness, the county seat. "We have always said that once they stick a shovel in the ground, we'll feel more comfortable," Sullivan said. "Now they've done that."
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