First Deadline Set For Solving Judicial Needs

BROOKSVILLE - After seven years of discussions and studies on the space crunch at the courthouse, a deadline for action has been set.

County commissioners were presented Tuesday with the results of a two-month study that found a short-term solution to the problem would cost $12.5 million.

Instead of investing that much money into a project with a five-year shelf life, county staffers recommended that work begin on a new judicial complex projected to satisfy space needs for the next 25 years.

Getting to that point will take direction, however, and that's what Interim County Administrator Larry Jennings asked his bosses for on Tuesday.

Commissioners gave the go-ahead for Jennings and his staff to skip the temporary phase and begin exploring financing options for a new building.

Chief Circuit Judge Daniel Merritt Sr. has been the leading champion for expanding the judicial quarters at the courthouse and he applauded commissioners Tuesday for their initiative.

But he also implored and urged them to pick up the tempo in regards to planning. Talks about meeting the judicial needs have been going on since 2001, he said.

"We cannot continue to put it off," he said.

Commissioner David Russell answered his plea by making a motion to set June 1 as the deadline for requesting proposals from the companies interested in building.

The study stems from a commission meeting on Nov. 27. A series of meetings with public attorneys, the circuit clerk and judges established that thousands of extra square feet and between two and three new courtrooms would be needed in the coming five years.

Those demands could be met through shuffling current judicial offices and placing them in vacated county department workspaces. By the county's estimations, though, those renovations add up to $6.5 million.

And that price tag doesn't include finding a new home for displaced county departments, such as Parks and Recreation and Purchasing and Planning. That would cost another $6 million, doubling the cost to the county.

By the time all of that would be accomplished, the cost of building a judicial complex would jump from $80 million to $100 million. The report also notes that those renovations would be torn out after the judicial complex was completed to make way for returning county employees.

"... A short term solution is not a wise financial decision," a memo reads.

The report acknowledges that in these times of lean budgets, funding for such a project hard is hard to come by. Researchers concluded a public-private partnership could be the answer.