As the construction of the new courthouse continues along Fourth Street, with estimated completion by the end of the year, San Benito County supervisors discussed how to allot the space that will be emptied in the existing courthouse.
Adam Goldstone, a project manager with the county public works department, presented two options to supervisors at Tuesday’s board meeting based on input from the facilities subcommittee. The space that will be vacated by the courts is 10,000 square feet.
In the first option, the existing county departments that are housed in the building would expand into the courthouse spaces, including the treasurer/tax collector, elections, clerk, auditing, recorder and assessor. The plan also calls for a space for the Council of San Benito County Governments, which currently leases an office space on Tres Pinos Road.
The second option calls for about half the space available from the departure of court services in the building to go to the County Office of Education. Goldstone said the facilities subcommittee members originally thought the Office of Education and COG would need a similar amount of space but discovered the Office of Education would need significantly more space than COG. The second option leaves some space for expansion of county offices, but less than in the first option.
He said a benefit with option two is that with the move of the Office of Education, the San Benito County Free Library could possible expand into the space.
Goldstone said the space that currently houses the hall of justice is recommended to remain as a storage space for long-term records and recommended not to be used for an office that is accessed by the public.
Supervisors expressed a desire to pursue the first option that would expand the office space for existing departments in the building and offering a space to COG. Lisa Rheinheimer, the executive director of COG, said the agency has a lease in its current location that will be up in July of next year so the agency would want to know if it will be able to move before renewing their current lease.
“My position was that we should maximize the return and get as much money as we could (in rent) but after reviewing this I think option one is better,” said Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz.
He said he liked that option one consolidated the operations of the clerk-auditor-recorder and elections department, all overseen by Joe Paul Gonzalez, in one space.
Goldstone said staff members will proceed with a mechanical system assessment and building material sampling and testing to help in developing a project cost estimate for any renovations that may need to be done to convert the courthouse space for office use.
New courthouse
Judge Steven Sanders spoke at the same meeting about the progress of the new courthouse. He said the first court proceedings are expected to be held in the new space in late 2013 or early 2014.
“This will take us up to the 21st century,” Sanders said. “I believe this is the last courthouse we will see this century. We’ve taken as many steps as we could to have it see us through the foreseeable future.”
Look for a story soon on the new courthouse construction.
