Advisory board will finish rating two proposed sites in
January
The state and a local advisory board are examining two sites for
the new San Benito County Courthouse, the Fremont School on Fourth
Street and a site on Flint Street near the San Benito County
Jail.
Advisory board will finish rating two proposed sites in January
The state and a local advisory board are examining two sites for the new San Benito County Courthouse, the Fremont School on Fourth Street and a site on Flint Street near the San Benito County Jail.
An advisory board will finish rating the sites by January and site selection will be finished by July 2008.
The state is developing a set of criteria for the prospective sites, said Gil Solorio, the court executive officer and a member of the advisory board. The advisory board will rate the sites based on that criteria.
“The court isn’t trying to steer opinions on different aspects of the construction,” he said.
Construction will be completed by May of 2011. It will be financed by a $32.5 million dollar grant from the state of California.
San Benito County needs a new courthouse because the existing facilities are too small, said Brad Pike, the mayor of Hollister and an advisory board member.
“Basically, it’s just a case of growing out of your house,” he said.
The Hollister redevelopment agency proposed donating the school site, Solorio said. The San Benito board of supervisors proposed a donation of four acres out of 20 acres near the jail.
“I’d like to see it downtown,” Pike said, referring to the courthouse. “I’d also like to see the improvement of the school site.”
If the courthouse was located downtown it would benefit the downtown economy, Pike said.
“Selfishly, the city needs to be looking at bringing facilities back to the downtown hub,” he said.
Elected officials and residents will have the opportunity to influence the site selection and design of the courthouse, Solorio said.
An advisory board of local officials will work with the state for the duration of the courthouse construction.
The members were chosen so that the entire community will be represented during the construction process.
“Local input is both desired and necessary,” he said.
The eight-member board includes three representatives from the San Benito Superior Court; Steven Sanders, judge of the Superior Court, Harry Tobias, presiding judge of the Superior Court, and Solorio.
It also includes two officials from San Benito County; Don Marcus, chair of the San Benito Board of Supervisors and Susan Thompson, county administrative officer.
Members from Hollister include Pike and Clint Quilter, Hollister city manager. Pricilla Hill, the mayor of San Juan, is representing San Juan Bautista.
Solorio would have liked the board to include more members, but that would have made it unwieldy, he said.
The advisory board meets every other week. Their first meeting was in late September, he said.
After the board rates the sites, the sites will be on the meeting agendas of the Board of Supervisors, the Hollister city council and the San Juan city council.
Representatives of the state will make the final decision regarding the courthouse site with the input from the advisory board.
If the administrative office of the courts, a state level agency, agrees with the board’s recommendation, the site will be approved.
If the state agency does not agree with the recommendation, the director of the administrative body of the courts will make the final decision, he said.
“I have no expectation that there will be a disagreement,” Solorio said.
