Space Lacking In Courthouse No Decision On Solution Yet, But Commissioners’ Options Limited

New judges and other staff expansions have the Spokane County Courthouse bulging.

A short-term fix to the space crunch would cost about $3 million.

A long-term solution - a new building adjacent to the stately courthouse - could cost $15 million.

County commissioners haven’t committed to a plan yet. But their options are limited.

“I just want to make sure that before we start building buildings, we’re absolutely sure it’s necessary,” Commissioner Kate McCaslin said.

Commissioner Phil Harris said county government is certain to need more space as the community grows and requires more services.

“We might not like building buildings. We might not like expanding government. However, you can’t serve the public if you’re not thinking ahead,” Harris said.

Erecting a new building takes at least three years from the time commissioners approve the work, said county architect Gary Fuher.

In the meantime, the county needs three new courtrooms: one for District Court, which added a court commissioner last year; and two for Superior Court, which added a judge in 1997 and is adding another this summer.

Making room for courtrooms in existing space entails what Fuher calls “the courthouse shuffle.” If the entire plan is approved by commissioners, it would affect at least four county agencies and three buildings.

County commissioners agreed Thursday to make space for a District Court courtroom in the Broadway Centre building. There’s one judge in that building, across Broadway Avenue from the court house.

Broadway Centre was damaged by an arson fire last Labor Day. Agencies on the second, third and fourth floors were moved into mobile offices in a parking lot. They’re scheduled to start moving back into the restored building this month.

To make room for the new courtroom, one of the agencies displaced by fire, the Community Services Department, will move into leased offices, Fuher said. The county’s fire insurance policy will pay for that move, leaving the county with about $70,000 in bills for creating the courtroom.

To make room for two Superior Court courtrooms, Fuher proposes moving the assessor’s office from the first floor of the courthouse into a former warehouse a block to the north.

The county received the warehouse, now called the Gardner Center, in a 1995 land swap. It already houses some county offices, along with storage for records and jail food. Adding the assessor’s office would cost about $1.2 million, Fuher said.

The county would have to pay $1.6 million to convert the assessor’s office into courtrooms, Fuher estimates.

Even if county commissioners decide immediately to make the move, the shuffle probably wouldn’t be finished until the middle of next year, Fuher said.

In the meantime, Fuher and commissioners said it may be necessary to hold court in the soon-to-be-empty mobile offices, which some judges disdainfully call “trailer town.” One of those 16 buildings contains only restrooms; the others have no plumbing.

Defendants would have to be escorted from the jail to the mobile courtroom, raising concerns about security.

In addition to the shuffle at the courthouse complex, the county is building a $1 million utilities shop in the Spokane Valley. Scheduled to open in September, it will replace a leased shop that is too small for the county’s growing stock of sewerage parts and maintenance equipment.

The county’s last major addition was the $5.5 million Public Works Building, just east of the courthouse.

That brick building, which opened in 1993, “is feeling the pinch” for space, Fuher said. Partly, that’s due to the state Growth Management Act, which required the county to add planning staff and take on new duties.