BENTONVILLE -- Benton County officials say many questions remain unanswered as work on plans for a new courts building continues.
The Committee of the Whole has endorsed a location on Northeast Second Street in downtown Bentonville that project consultants identified as one possible location.
"What has not been established is the size of the building, the scale of the building that's needed," County Judge Barry Moehring said. "That's one issue. Then there's the issue of cost. To date, cost parameters haven't been a large part of the discussion. It's fine to determine the type of building that you want. Now we have to start to inject what we can afford into the discussion."
Weighing the county's needs against the cost and the county's ability to pay will be difficult, said Joel Jones, justice of the peace. The county can consider the details of the building and possible financing options simultaneously, but only up to a point, Jones said.
"I think there's still a lot of questions on how big a building do we need," Jones said. "But we don't want to say 'We have this much money' and build a building that's going to be inadequate."
County officials, including the circuit judges, have to agree on what is needed before asking voters to approve a bond issue, which would be paid for from the county's existing revenues, or another funding method, Jones said. The most recent estimates have put the cost of a new courts building in the range of $35 million.
"Nobody likes that price tag," Jones said. "We keep seeing studies with it in that price range. If it comes to it, to make it an adequate building, we may have to finance it at that cost. But we don't know that yet. That definition of 'adequate' is a hard thing to nail down."
Circuit Judge Doug Schrantz said the county needs to proceed from the premise any new building project will solve the county's current problems, including overcrowded courtrooms and other public spaces, safety and security concerns for court officials, employees, those making use of the courts and the public, adequate parking and the ability to expand to meet the county's expected growth.
The county courts system has grown and should be expected to continue to grow, Schrantz said. He said in 1977 the courts system had two judges for a district that served 85,000 people in Benton and Carroll counties with one large courtroom and one smaller courtroom without a jury box. By 1982, he said, the population of the district was about 96,000 and a third judge was added. By 1989, the population grew to 113,000 and a fourth judge was added. In 1997, the two counties split into separate districts, Schrantz said, and another judge was added for Benton County, giving the courts five judges to serve a population of about 162,000. The county last added a judge in 2007, he said, when the population had grown to about 210,000.
"You can't discount our growth when you're considering what we need and what we will need," Schrantz said.
The county has tried to meet the needs of the court system haphazardly in the past, creating new courtrooms in basement space or renovating existing buildings not designed with the needs of the courts in mind, Schrantz said. If the county is going to resolve the problems, that can't be done now, he said.
"We can't keep doing it that way," he said. "There's nowhere else to go."
Shirley Sandlin, justice of the peace, abstained in the Committee of the Whole vote last week about keeping the courts downtown. Sandlin still has concerns about building downtown and about building a new facility that isn't adequate when it opens.
"That is a history here," Sandlin said. "When we built this Administration Building they weren't going to finish out the third floor because 'We can get along without it.' Now every space is filled. Try and find a conference room in this building. There's isn't one. That didn't happen. We've patched and band-aided so often and for so long."
County officials have discussed plans for a building to house circuit courts and related offices for several years. The county's six circuit courts are spread among four locations. Three are housed in the historic county courthouse, which was built in 1928 with a single courtroom. The two other courtrooms have been fitted into existing space in the courthouse as the county grew and the number of circuit judges increased. Other courtrooms are in two separate buildings in the downtown Bentonville area and at the Juvenile Detention Center on Melissa Drive.
An initial study finished in January 2014 identified three sites: two downtown and one on Southwest 14th Street near the jail.
A second study completed last year by the county's consultants -- Perkowitz, Ruth, Cromwell and Dewberry -- presented six building options, with two options on Southwest 14th Street, one for property behind the courthouse and three options for property on Northeast Second Street, just off the downtown square.
One of the concepts for Southwest 14th Street was ranked highest by the consultants, with one of the Northeast Second Street options close behind. The Option 1 plan on Southwest 14th Street will cost about $37.8 million. The Option 4 program on Northeast Second Street will cost of $34.5 million, with about $11 million in incentives offered by Walton family interests factored in. The Walton Family Foundation made a $2.8 million grant available to renovate the courthouse and to buy land on Northeast Second Street and Walton family interests and downtown business supporters have made other pledges -- including providing the building site and building a parking garage.
Help wanted
Benton County Judge Barry Moehring says a request for qualifications for an architect is being drafted and he hopes to hire someone to do design work on a new courts building by the end of March.
Source: Staff report
General News on 03/08/2017