Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 21, 1994 TAG: 9407220060
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Long
Court clerks and police struggle to make do with offices that provide little privacy, inadequate security and cramped storage and filing areas in both the Municipal Building on Second Street and the Public Safety Building on First Street.
"There is not another inch in here where we can put something," Debra Bostic, clerk of the General District Court, said from her cubbyhole window office in the Municipal Building, which houses both the city offices and the courts.
On days when court is being held, the chatter of people squeezed out of overstuffed courtrooms into the corridors interferes with city employees trying to concentrate on their work.
A block away at the Police Department on First Street, secretary Carol Hubbard ticks off a list of problems: "Ain't big enough; too old; plumbing leaks. We do need new facilities. ... We don't have the room to put stuff in and be modern and up-to-date."
Radford's space crunch at times seems like the weather: Everybody talks about it but nobody does anything about it.
Four years ago, a committee appointed by City Council found the condition of the Municipal Building and the Public Safety Building grossly inadequate and, in some cases, deplorable.
The city owns both buildings and is responsible for their upkeep. It will be up to City Council to decide whether to renovate or build new facilities.
Circuit Judge Duane Mink had prompted the study when he sent City Council a letter calling the court and jail facilities old, outdated and crowded. General district, juvenile and domestic and circuit courts meet in the building on a regular schedule, and Mink is a resident judge. The crowding issue surfaced again this spring during the Radford municipal elections.
But Mink recently said he would not push for new court facilities until the General Assembly decides whether to go forward with a Family Court to consolidate all cases involving families and children under a single judicial umbrella. The legislature has approved the concept but no funding for a Family Court, which would require space for another judge, another clerk and bulky legal files.
Mink said the inaction should not be blamed on City Council. "They requested we tell them what we need. I haven't responded formally," the judge said, because of the uncertainty over legislative action.
City Manager Bob Asbury said the Municipal Building is so cramped because of the increase in court activities since the building's construction. Adapting municipal spaces for court use has also posed a security problem.
Two years ago, a man being kept in a holding room used a paper clip to undo a handcuff, stacked chairs in a corner and then pulled tile and insulation away from the ceiling to make his escape. The room has now been improved with a security screen in the ceiling, but it is still more like a waiting room than the holding cells at the Montgomery County courthouse.
Also delaying the decision is Radford's possible participation in a regional jail, Asbury said .
The city and the counties of Pulaski, Giles, Floyd and Grayson are applying for 50 percent state funding on a shared jail. But, none of the localities is locking itself into a construction agreement until the amount of state funding is known - probably not until after the 1995 General Assembly session.
The Radford Police Department is crammed into the first and basement floors of the 102-year-old Public Safety Building at First and Wadsworth streets. In some places, the brick and mortar building still bears the scars of a 1951 fire.
Dampness has made most of the storage area in the basement unusable, said Sgt. Gary Harmon. One large room, used to store recovered bicycles and other stolen property, has a dirt floor and crumbling walls.
"I have been embarrassed to bring people down here," Harmon said.
Detectives, whose offices are in the basement, put up paneling and doors to create an office-atmosphere. But behind the paneling are those same damp walls.
Upstairs, police have to walk prisoners through the lobby, where the public comes to lodge a complaint or speak to an officer. "That's a danger to the public," Harmon said.
The building's first floor also houses a magistrate's office, a holding cell and the fire marshal's office.
The jail and city sheriff's office are on the second floor.
Sheriff Bobby Farmer doesn't even have a private office - he shares it with the civil process servers. The mortar is falling out from between some of the bricks, Farmer said.
A block away on Second Street, the brick Municipal Building, which houses city offices, council chambers and the city's three courts, is equally crowded even though at 26 it's relatively "new" compared to the Public Safety Building.
The one-story building does not have a lot of room to grow because it was not designed to allow a second story and expanding the building outward would take away already scarce parking spaces.
Bostic has the sympathy of both Mink and Asbury. Her small office, where two other clerks work, is one of the worst examples of the space crunch at the Municipal Building on Second Street. The three clerks work behind a glass partition reminiscent of a DMV drive-up window. Two desks sit in the center of the small room, with files from 1985 forward lining the walls. Office supplies are stacked up beside the desks.
"Can't but one of us walk around at a time," said Deputy Clerk Frances Hutton.
Bostic's "private" office also doubles as the judge's office.
On court days, people line the hallway waiting to pay fines. Judges confer in public with lawyers, and lawyers with clients because of the lack of space.
A new building - either a new courthouse or a new municipal building - is in the city's Capital Improvement Plan for 1996-97, Asbury said, with the priority likely going to the courthouse.
But no cost estimate is attached and no way to pay for it other than general obligation bonds, Asbury said. That means city taxpayers would ultimately pay for the building - either through a tax increase or a reduction in other services to meet the debt of the bonds.
Asbury said Judge Mink has "been very patient" and City Council is thankful for that.
But between the uncertain future of both a regional jail and the Family Court, no one wants to move too soon and build a facility that will not meet the needs for several years. .
"Family Court, if that becomes a reality, will just blow this facility away," Asbury said.
by CNB