Centre County Commissioners recently approved a plan to purchase a historic bank building in downtown Bellefonte to accommodate the addition of a fourth judge to the district in January of 2006. Adding another judge could cost the county an additional $250,000 per year.
The purchase of the building and the addition of a fourth judge are part of an expansion of Centre County's justice system caused by an increase in the district's caseload over the past several years.
Commissioners agreed to pay $240,000 for the M&T Bank building on the corner of High and Allegheny streets in downtown Bellefonte, Commission Chairman Chris Exarchos said. The county will then spend several hundred thousand dollars in renovations to construct a courtroom, judge's chambers, public restrooms and other necessary facilities, Exarchos said.
The renovated building will only be used to house the new judge temporarily, Centre County President Judge Charles C. Brown said. Construction on a new building, also in downtown Bellefonte, will begin soon. The fourth judge will move to this building when it is completed, and the renovated M&T Bank building will be used for office space, and the courtroom will possibly hold arbitration cases, Brown said.
However, Commissioner Scott Conklin said that instead of constructing a new building, officials might decide instead to build an addition onto the existing courthouse in Bellefonte. The fourth judge would then be moved from the renovated M&T building to this new addition, Conklin said.
Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar said he supports the addition of a fourth judge. He also said the addition will cause a "ripple effect" throughout the area's court system. He said additional assistant district attorneys, court reporters, public defenders, probation officials and other personnel would likely have to be added along with the new judge.
Gricar said he plans to ask for two new assistant district attorneys in the 2005 budget request that he submits to the commissioners. He said these additions would coincide with the new judge's arrival in January 2006.
Conklin agreed that a ripple effect would occur because of the new judge. He said Centre County taxpayers will have to pay for most of the expansion because the state will only cover a percentage of the additional salaries and construction costs.
"Something as simple as adding a fourth judge will add about $250,000 to Centre County's budget each year," Conklin said.
Exarchos said the increase in the district's caseload is because of population growth in the county and also because of the recent change in Pennsylvania's DUI laws. Legislation that took effect in February lowered the legal blood alcohol content (BAC) from 0.1 to 0.08.
Gricar agreed that the county's caseload has increased over the past few years, but he said it is unlikely this increase is because of the state's new DUI regulations. He said that because these regulations only took effect in February, it is too soon to know if they have affected the district's caseload.
Brown said he thinks the large number of pretrial motions and the extensive discovery processes in which many lawyers now engage has added to the need for a fourth judge. He said cases have are more complex, and this slows progress of the county's justice system.
