Commissioners Unveil Plans For New Building $4.3 Million Project Would Ease Cramped Working Conditions

Kootenai County will spend $4.3 million to build 40,000 square feet of offices behind the courthouse.

Commissioners will use tax money, but say they hope to finance the project without raising taxes.

The project unveiled by commissioners Tuesday ends years of speculation and discussion about how to solve a space crunch.

“I’ve been working in this building 19 years and I’ve seen other commissioners do a lot of talk and review,” said Assessor Tom Moore. “I support this 100 percent.”

The three-story building would house the building and planning department, motor vehicle and driver’s license offices, and the offices of elections, assessor, clerk, treasurer and commissioners. It would include a meeting room that could seat several hundred people.

Commissioners expect construction to start in September and be completed in fall 1997.

“No one wants to build a building. No one wants to spend taxpayer money,” said commission chairman Dick Compton. “The fact is, we’ve outgrown” the courthouse.

County workers have been crammed into tight quarters for years. Commissioners currently rent 28,000 square feet of office space in six locations for $204,000 a year. The prosecutor’s office is across Garden Avenue from the courthouse in a 70-year-old remodeled hospital.

“We’ve got people stuffed where they just don’t belong,” county Administrator Tom Taggart said.

Commissioners set aside about $750,000 in the last two years and hope to set aside another $500,000 next year to pay for initial costs.

The remaining 70 percent to 80 percent of the project would be financed through a 10-year lease-purchase agreement with the Idaho Association of Counties.

Interest rates are low now - about 5-3/4 percent - and construction costs are expected to drop this summer, Compton said. The county expects to cover its $450,000 annual lease payments by cutting costs in other areas.

Not everyone is pleased with the plan.

State law requires officials to seek voter approval before incurring long-term debt. This plan is an attempt to bypass that requirement, said Ron Rankin of the Kootenai County Property Owners Association.

State law does allow a lease-purchase agreement, but Rankin said that violates the law’s spirit.

“If it’s not illegal, it should be.” Also, Compton and commissioner Dick Panabaker criticized the leasepurchase agreement when they ran for office.

“That’s just like a politician: They say one thing when they want to get elected and something else when they’re in office,” Rankin said.

Commissioners said a vote was not necessary. “The proper time for a vote is next November,” they said in a written statement.

Rankin argued the building already would be under construction then.

Once the project is completed and departments relocated, nearly half the lease payments will be covered by the money no longer spent on rent.

Within six months of the completion of the new building, commissioners said they would spend another $600,000 to remodel the existing courthouse. That building would house the prosecutor, public defender, juvenile diversion and probation offices.

A new courtroom would be added on the third floor and the fourth floor would become a law library.

Commissioners are considering an addition to the county justice building for additional courtroom space and will need to expand the county jail. Those decisions will be made later and may require a voterapproved bond or tax increase.

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