11/7/2009 12:52:00 PM
New Camp Verde courthouse ready for business
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| Judge Michael Bluff: "It will be nice to have bigger courtrooms with room for jury trials, and the chambers are much bigger," Bluff said. "We start Monday with a full calendar." |
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By Bruce Colbert
Contributing Reporter
CAMP VERDE - It's high-tech and upscale: The new Camp Verde Superior Courthouse is ready for judges to dispense justice.
"We've needed this for the past five years," said Deborah Schaefer, court administrator. "This is long overdue."
It took four years of planning and about 14 months to build the $11.7 million courthouse at 2840 N. Commonwealth Dr. behind the old courthouse in Camp Verde.
Staff started moving Friday morning from their old offices to their new offices, and likely will need to work through the weekend to be ready for business on Monday, Superior Court Clerk Jeanne Hicks said.
"We're all so excited," Hicks said. "Look at the light in here (the clerks' offices). It's great to have natural light." She added that the view of the Verde Valley and mountains is a nice bonus, as well as nearly doubling her department's current office space.
The mood among most employees Friday morning could only be described as "excited" while packing boxes and loading trucks and trailers. Inmate jail trustees helped with the move.
"It will be ready for Monday," County Facilities Director Pat Kirshman said.
The 35,000-square-foot building houses four courtrooms, one hearing room, attorney interview rooms, an exhibit vault, file storage room, four public workstations, a multimedia room that doubles as a jury assembly room, and four victim rooms.
"The victim room has a two-way mirror, microphone and monitor so a victim can watch the proceedings without the suspect seeing them," said Shelley Bacon, court services coordinator.
The courthouse has two levels and a basement. The length of the building's front is glassed from ground to roof and adorned with copper trim.
"We're letting the copper trim get to a certain patina and then we'll seal it," Kirshman said.
The courtrooms are a marvel of technology.
"We've got the top technology," Bacon said. "There are monitors to view the proceedings, an evidence presentation system and video cameras that record the hearings. And we have a secure walkway from the jail to an interior elevator to a holding area."
Parading shackled inmates through the public to court has long been a sore point for law enforcement and members of the public that watch the spectacle.
"It's like walking a chain gang through the building," Schaefer said.
Now, however, custody officers escort inmates directly from the adjacent jail into an elevator in the basement, which discharges inmates into an enclosed and secured corridor behind courtrooms. Prisoners move through the corridor directly into a holding area out of contact with the public.
Although most employees Friday were busy moving, court business went on. Court clerks handled business surrounded by cardboard file boxes, cell phones ringing, and workers pushing dollies in and out.
"It's like Christmas," said Jackie Harshman, a court window clerk. "The new building is awesome."
Superior Court Judges Michael Bluff, Tina Ainley and Warren Darrow are the full-time judges moving into the new courthouse. Bluff had a light calendar Friday and filled time carrying boxes to his new chambers.
"It will be nice to have bigger courtrooms with room for jury trials, and the chambers are much bigger," Bluff said. "We start Monday with a full calendar."
The new courthouse also houses offices for adult probation and CASA (Court-Appointed Special Advocates.)
"It's like a dream come true," said Jim Ventura, senior adult probation officer. Three officers share the new office, which is nearly triple the size of their previous office that Ventura described as "a closet."
"We're all up, up, up," said a beaming Harshman.
"I think it looks pretty darn good," Kirshman said, summing up the year-long construction.
The board of supervisors is inviting members of the public to an open house at the new courthouse, which includes tours and refreshments, 10 a.m. Friday, Nov. 20.
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