Benton County to consider court building plans, costs

BENTONVILLE -- County Judge Bob Clinard is preparing new budgets for a downtown location and a site near the County Jail on Southwest 14th Street for a new courts building.

A presentation at the Aug. 6 Finance Committee meeting will provide more detail on costs and explain what separates his concept of a downtown courts building from a plan developed by Hight-Jackson Architects for downtown Bentonville business interests and the Walton Family Foundation, Clinard said.

Court costs

Benton County’s Finance Committee is set to continue its discussion of funding methods for a proposed downtown new courts building when the panel meets at 6 p.m. Aug. 6 in the Quorum Courtroom of the County Administration Building. The justices of the peace have been considering a sales tax increase or a property tax millage increase to fund some or all of the project, which has been estimated to cost about $24 million.

Source: Staff Report

The "G-2 concept," as the Hight-Jackson plan is designated, includes aspects Clinard said he can't support, principally in relying on using old buildings as part of a courts complex. Using the courts annex building and keeping the county courthouse for criminal court proceedings masks some problems while creating others, he said.

"I do not prefer the G-2 plan because of it using the courts annex, which is functionally obsolete, as part of a new courts facility," Clinard said Thursday. "I do not agree with using the old courthouse for criminal cases. I think we can use it for some civil trials and for ceremonial venues but it's out of my thinking that we would continue to use it for criminal trials rather than use an entirely new courts building."

Clinard is working with building contractors, construction companies, architects and engineers to see what construction costs are and he will use those figures to prepare his budgets. Discussions will continue into next week as he prepares for the meeting set for 6 p.m. Aug. 6.

Discussions with Bentonville planning officials have prompted some possible changes, Clinard said. In his initial proposal, the county planned to have parking available on the corner of Second and A streets, adjacent to the downtown square. City officials expressed a preference to keep parking away from that corner, he said. Clinard will have drawings that show the building there as well as drawings that show the building at the corner of Second and B streets as originally drawn.

Several justices of the peace have said the only questions that remain involve the details of a downtown building project even as Clinard continues to view the building plan and location as an open question with the option for the Southwest 14th Street site still a part of the discussion.

The county's Public Safety Committee voted to proceed with the project with the building to be located in downtown Bentonville.

"It seemed pretty well set in stone to me," said Kurt Moore, justice of the peace for District 13, of the location. "Since the court has said it wants the building downtown, unless the Quorum Court wants to back up and punt and try again, they've made a pretty resounding decision they want it downtown. If it's considerably more expensive we're going to have to come up with a way to pay for it."

Susan Anglin, justice of the peace for District 9, wants more information on why the courts annex building and the historic courthouse shouldn't be used as part of the court system before she will support a plan that doesn't use them. She doubts voters will support the project without such an explanation.

"I still have a problem with not using buildings that are still usable," she said. "I don't feel comfortable asking the public to support something that hasn't been fully discussed."

Anglin said the county needs to work more closely with the downtown interests and the Walton Family Foundation, which has promised the county a $2 million grant to renovate the historic county courthouse plus another $1 million to help offset the cost of land acquisition if the county adopts the G-2 plan or a plan that is "substantially similar." The foundation already has provided the county with about $2.9 million to begin renovation work on the old courthouse.

"I think it's a shame we can't work together," she said.

Clinard's objections to the G-2 plan are made with a view to the county's long-term needs, he said. Keeping the courts annex, built in the 1930s, as part of a modern courts building makes no sense, he said. Neither does the idea of keeping the old county courthouse, built in 1928, in regular use as a courtroom. Those elements lowered the initial cost of the G-2 plan but would cause problems in the future and lead to even greater costs when the county had to replace them or expand a building already in use in the downtown area, he said.

"The cost of a new building will be higher than the G-2 estimate because they're using the annex and the old courthouse," he said. "Let's not keep it artificially low by making decisions that will come back to cost the county more."

Trends point to the county, which now has six circuit court judges, needing another circuit judge by 2020 and a second new judge by 2030, he said. The county needs to plan for that growth and do so now, he said.

"Let's not kick the can down the road 20 years and leave it to some other county judge and Quorum Court to deal with," he said.

Barry Moehring, justice of the peace for District 19, has been a vocal supporter of keeping the courts building downtown. Moehring thinks the G-2 plan "checks off all the necessary boxes" for the county's needs and keeps costs reasonable. Moehring will listen to Clinard's proposal, but will have to be persuaded that the changes and increased costs are needed.

"The judge's plan is not the only plan for downtown," Moehring said.

NW News on 07/31/2015

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