By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.com
“The courthouse is supposed to be in the center of the town. I do not want to see it by the jail,” Decatur Mayor Dan Rickord said at Tuesday night’s city council meeting following a decision by Adams County officials to scrap plans to do a major renovation of the Service Complex.
The mayor and other city officials were emphatic in their belief that the courthouse should remain where it is currently situated: in the center of downtown Decatur.
With the plan to redo the county’s Service Complex – bringing several offices under one roof, with the loss of the gymnasium – now scrapped, talk is turning to other possible sites to accomplish the same goal.
One of them is the land beside the county jail at the southern tip of the city.
As he has said in the past, Rickord reiterated Tuesday night that city officials are working with county leaders in seeking a solution,.
“We are looking at some gym space; talks are ongoing (with the county),” he said.
“We will work with the county to keep it downtown, we will make that happen. Other communities have it in their downtown and that’s the way we want to keep it.”
Councilman Matt Dyer said both judges (Chad Kukelhan, circuit; Sam Conrad, superior) support keeping the courthouse downtown.
He also said that all 92 Indiana counties have their courthouses in the downtown area.
City Attorney Anne Razo urged local businesses to pay attention to what’s going on (with the courthouse).
“This is something which will impact our community for many, many years,” she said. “This (courthouse) is an incredibly valuable resource for our community.”
The Service Complex, a former high school, is located near the downtown area; some would say it is in the downtown area.
TOO EXPENSIVE: The county commissioners, at their regular meeting on Tuesday, dropped a possible major renovation of the Service Complex as too expensive.
The project would have cost around $25 million, according to an outline presented by the Elevatus architectural firm of Fort Wayne, which had been hired by the commissioners.
(Bellmont grad Cory Miller is a president and partner of Elevatus.)
So, according to reports, the commissioners are now turning to the idea of putting county offices under one roof of a building to be constructed on county-owned land by the jail.
They stressed, however, that any final decisions are a long way off.
The commissioners will meet with Elevatus representatives again next week to consider what steps should be taken next.
About the Author
