BENTONVILLE -- Benton County's justices of the peace were given budgets Thursday for two plans for a new courts building and tasked them with choosing to pay for one of the plans.
County Judge Bob Clinard presented his recommendations for a new building to house circuit courts and related offices. Clinard presented a plan for a new building on county property on Southwest 14th Street near the Road Department and jail. He also presented a budget for a building on Second Street in downtown Bentonville. The justices of the peace have said they want to keep the courts and other offices downtown.
Ambulance service
Benton County’s justices of the peace on Thursday approved spending $288,300 for an ambulance, equipment and building improvements as part of the plan to provide ambulance service to the southeastern portion of the county. The Finance Committee asked for a report on talks with Mercy Health Systems to provide staff and operate the service when the panel meets at 6 p.m. Sept. 3 in the Quorum Courtroom in the County Administration Building. 215 E. Central Ave. in Bentonville..
Source: Staff report
"This is my long-term plan for what we need to do with our facilities," Clinard said.
Tom Allen of District 4 and chairman of the Finance Committee, said he'll set a meeting to discuss the options after he has checked with Clinard, the circuit judges and other stakeholders on scheduling. Allen said he hopes to have the meeting within the next month.
Clinard said he continues to prefer the new building on the Southwest 14th Street for several reasons. In a letter to the justices of the peace detailing the budgets, Clinard said the plan will provide for six new courtroom and have room for expansion with minor disruption to the courts and offices in use. He said there's space for an "unlimited number of dedicated parking spaces," putting the initial parking at 480 spaces. He also cited the proximity of the jail, minimizing time and distance when prisoners are moved from the jail to court, the added safety of a new building set back from public streets and traffic and no disruption to courts during construction.
Clinard said the net cost to the county at the Southwest 14th Street site would be about $26.7 million. Total costs of $29.3 million would be partially offset by the sale of the old Post Office building at 201 NE Second St, the assessor's annex at 221 S. Main St. and the county's Development Building at 905 NW Eighth St.
Clinard projected the sale of those buildings would net $2.6 million, with the old post office bringing in $1.7 million, the assessor's annex $600,000 and the Development Building $300,000.
Clinard's plan for a downtown building calls for a "self-contained justice facility" at the corner of Second and B streets. He said he will not consider a plan that ties a new building to the old post office, as has been proposed by downtown business interests and the Walton Family Foundation in the G-2 plan presented by the groups' architects Hight-Jackson Associates.
Clinard said his downtown plan will house six courtrooms and all related offices in a five-level building. He said dedicated parking is limited to 270 spaces and construction will cause "noticeable disruption to the court process." The cost of the downtown plan is $36.2 million, Clinard said in his letter.
That would be reduced by the sale of the three buildings to $33.6 million. Clinard said money offered by the Walton Family Foundation toward the costs of a downtown building could reduce the cost by another $4.9 million if the foundation accepts his plan. That would bring the net cost to the county of the downtown courts building to $28.7 million.
He said an additional, unfinished floor can be added for expansion. Adding the floor would increase the initial cost by $3,375,000.
Clinard also presented the justices of the peace with an estimated budget for the G-2 plan, which he said would cost $30,650,000 with the Walton Family Foundation grants and the sale of the assessor's annex included. He said those cost didn't appear to include the total cost of renovating the old post office, saying that could cost another $1 million, and that adding an unfinished floor for expansion would add another $2.1 million to the cost.
Clinard said he will not consider the G-2 plan, citing the difficulty and cost of attaching the old post office building to a new structure including concerns with waterproofing, seismic design, fire codes, and fire retardation, plumbing and electrical work.
"The end result would be our judicial process in ... three buildings," he said in his letter. "Maximum disruption to existing Division 2 (court) unless we move them temporarily. Cost differential is not worth the end result."
NW News on 08/28/2015