WEST POINT — About 17 years ago when Judge Jim Kitchens first became a judge for the 16th Circuit District, he gave a group of elementary students a tour of the Clay County Courthouse.
He asked them if they knew why it was called a courthouse — expecting them, he said, to give the answer that it was where court takes place.
Instead, one child said: “Because this is where justice lives.”
“That was more insightful than I am,” Kitchens remembered Thursday. “I wouldn’t have thought of that. Here’s this second or third grader saying, ‘This is where justice lives,’ and I thought, ‘He’s encapsulated the short answer.'”
If that’s the case, then justice has a new home in Clay County, where Thursday officials cut the ribbon on a new court complex in downtown West Point, which will serve as headquarters for both circuit and justice courts in the county.
“I’m very excited,” said R.B. Davis, president of the board of supervisors. “Our entire board is so excited to be able to open this facility. It’s going to be a great asset to the community.”
The county financed a $4 million lease-purchase agreement with Golden Triangle Planning and Development District, to be repaid over the next 20 years, to purchase and renovate the former Pass-It-On building on West Main Street. Community Counseling Services owned the building before the county purchased it in early 2018.
Currently housed in a small building on Court Street that also holds chancery court offices, youth court and the tax assessor’s office, employees in the circuit and justice courts will begin moving into the new building over the next couple of weeks, said Board Secretary and Chancery Clerk Amy Berry. By the Nov. 5 election, poll workers will be counting votes in the new court complex.
“This building … will not only … better facilitate the court process, but will also be a building that our community will be proud of for a long time,” Berry said. “I’m excited about that.”
Purchase and renovation
Supervisors began shopping for a new courthouse or court complex in 2016, to combat overcrowding at the courthouse on Court Street.
On the first day of every circuit court term, attorneys, judges, extra law enforcement, citizens who have been called in for jury duty and those with pending criminal cases all descend on the courthouse, along with the courthouse’s employees who are there all the time. Berry previously told The Dispatch it was impossible for employees to find parking and that the crowds of people in a building with limited exits and doors was becoming a safety hazard.
“When they all come in the front door — that thing’s only a double door and the back door’s locked for security — it kind of crowds our taxpayers, our people that’s coming up there trying to conduct business,” District 2 Supervisor Luke Lummus said during Thursday’s ceremony. “(Supervisors said) we’ve got to find something.”
Supervisors settled on the 27,000 square-foot building on Main Street.
“Thank God for Community Counseling,” Lummus said. “(The question was asked), ‘You think they’ll sell that building?’ I said, ‘We’re going to find out.'”
Community Counseling sold the building for $450,000. Lummus said blueprints of the building were provided to Berry, Sheriff Eddie Scott, Circuit Clerk Bob Harrell and circuit and justice judges, who all immediately began making notes about what they wanted out of the building.
Once plans were completed, Benchmark Construction, GTPDD’s general contractor, began construction on the project in May.
Justice Judge Thomas Hampton, who also spoke during Thursday’s ceremony, admitted that he had reservations when the county first purchased the building.
“I want to thank everyone who stood up for the board of supervisors,” Hampton said. “I heard a lot of negativity when we was talking about building this building, even myself. I didn’t think it was big enough, to be honest about it. But this place is super. We really have … an up-to-date courtroom and facilities, so again, I would like to thank the board of supervisors for doing a wonderful job.”
Berry and Davis both stressed the building’s price was significantly less than what would have been spent to construct an entirely new building, and supervisors and judges at Thursday’s ceremony all said they are happy with the end result.
“It takes away the bottleneck that we had up in the courthouse,” Davis said. “People will be able to move freely and take care of their business, and it’s such a good deal.”
Long-anticipated project
The complex comes equipped with three courtrooms, two with jury boxes — a significant step up from the Court Street building which only had one courtroom with a jury box, said Kitchens and his fellow circuit judges Lee Coleman and Lee Howard.
Another bonus for them: “Plenty of parking space,” Coleman said.
The judges said in the coming weeks, their court reporters will set up in the building, getting “savvy” with the new electronic system and making sure their own equipment interfaces with it. The next circuit term, which begins in October, will be held in the new court complex.
Both the circuit clerk’s and justice clerk’s offices — which are located to the immediate left and right of the building’s front entrance, respectively — will be operational by the end of September, said Berry.
“This has been a long-awaited, long-anticipated project that’s finally come to an end,” she said.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.