City approves $2.19 million contract for Municipal Court relocation to Missouri Room

Posted on March 20, 2024 by Jenn Rowell

City Commissioners unanimously approved 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.

There was no public comment on the contract during the meeting.

Commissioner Shannon Wilson said, “that is a lot of money to remodel a room.”

Great Falls Police Chief Jeff Newton said that he’d have to assign another bailiff to the second court once it’s fully operational in the new space.

Commissioner Joe McKenney said part of the difficulty in the decision was that the Missouri Room has some historical features.

He asked Sylvia Tarman, the city’s ARPA projects manager, if the city planned to preserve those historical features, a point that was discussed last summer when the city reviewed and approved the design contract for the project.

Tarman said most of the “character defining” features of the room will stay.

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.

Commissioner Joe McKenney said that they’d considered the current Children’s Museum of Montana space behind the Civic Center that is owned by the city and leased to the museum.

“We’ve made it clear we’d like them to find another space,” McKenney said of the museum.

He asked if the museum moved out and the court moved into the museum space, could the Missouri Room be turned back into an event space.

City Manager Grey Doyon has said in multiple public meetings and written in city documents that he didn’t intend to recommend moving the Municipal Court into the museum space, but rather would move the city planning department into the building with the idea of making it into a development center, and move the legal department into the space currently occupied by planning.

Tarman said it would be possible to turn the Missouri Room back into event space, but it would be an expense.

Doyon said that once they move the Municipal Court into the Missouri Room, it’s “highly unlikely that it will go away.”

For background, here’s our previous coverage on the discussion:

City to consider $2.19 million contract for Municipal Court relocation in Civic Center

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]

City approves lease extension for Children’s Museum [2024]

Discussions continuing about possible home for Children’s Museum in Black Eagle [2023]