City to consider $2.19 million contract for Municipal Court relocation in Civic Center
City Commissioners will consider awarding a $2.19 million contract to Wadsworth Builders during their March 19 meeting for the court relocation.
The project is being funded with American Rescue Plan Act, or federal COVID relief, funds.
Staff is recommending approval of the contract.
The Municipal Court is currently in the basement of the Civic Center, where it’s been since the 1970s, according to city staff.
For years, city officials have been discussing the need for more court space.
City approves design contract for Missouri Room remodel [2023]
In November 2022, voters approved a city charter amendment to add a second municipal judge.
In early 2023, the city posted an advertisement for the second judge with a plan for the City Commission to appoint a judge to full the newly created seat until the election.
That had been the city’s publicly discussed plan for months.
Within an hour of announcing that the city was accepting applications for the position in February 2023, Cayle Halberg, a local attorney, emailed commissioners challenging that process, arguing that municipal judges must be elected and can only be appointed to a new vacancy, not a newly created position, under state law, according to city records.
City officials opted to halt the process and wait for the election rather than risk a legal challenge and any cases handled by the second judge being invalidated if the city were to lose that challenge.
In November 2023, Mark Dunn, who was a city prosecutor, won the second judge seat, defeating Halberg.
City Commissioners identified additional court space as a top tier project for ARPA funding in April 2022 and staff started working with Cushing Terrell for a design.
Early designs remodeled the existing basement space, but “it became quickly apparent that it would barely service the current court needs and provide no room for growth,” according to the staff report.
Staff recommended remodeling the Missouri Room upstairs in the Civic Center for the Municipal Court.
In July 2023, commissioners directed staff to move forward with the Missouri Room remodel, despite opposition from the City-County Historic Preservation Commission.
In August 2023, commissioners awarded the design contract to Cushing Terrell, which already provided preliminary designs.
The project includes renovating the Missouri Room into two courtrooms and office space.
The city received three bids for the project, with Wadsworth being the lowest bidder at $2,198,175 and recommended by city staff and Cushing Terrell.
The court has also faced a growing caseload and is running out of room for file storage and staff, according to court officials.
City staff looked at a number of options throughout town, to include the court space on the upper levels of the federal post office, private property around the Civic Center and the city-owned property currently leased and occupied by the Children’s Museum.
City Manager Greg Doyon said in August 2023, that the move will impact the city’s events division and budget, which is already operating on a thin margin.
He said there are rooms used regularly by city staff, particularly the IT training room, that won’t be available after the remodel so the design contract includes preliminary designs for remodeling the Civic Center basement for meeting space.
For background, here’s our previous coverage on the discussion:
Commissioners to consider Missouri Room remodel design contract for court relocation [2023]
City Commission OKs moving forward with Missouri Room renovation for courtrooms [2023]
City continuing discussion of turning Missouri Room into court space [2023]
Historic preservation board opposes use of Missouri Room for court space [2023]
City considering remodeling Missouri Room for court space [2023]
Municipal Court discusses unpaid fines, second judge, additional court space [2023]
Commissioners update city code to add a Municipal Court judge [2022]
City considering code change for second Municipal Court judge [2022]
Municipal Court seeking part-time judge to handle increasing caseload [2019]
Community meeting set on potential use of Black Eagle property for children’s museum
City approves five-year lease agreement for Children’s Museum [2019]
Children’s Museum lease up for commission consideration on Wednesday [2018]
