A change in plans

Several readers have asked us about an article that appeared in the January 31, 2007 issue of The Morgan Messenger and is now being quoted by people in the debate over where the sheriff’s law enforcement deputies should be located.

If you’ve been following the story, you know that the sheriff believed his law enforcement office would move into the Magistrate Court building after the magistrates and family court move into the new courthouse. But the county commissioners have not given that go-ahead and have expressed concern about the costs of the building renovations.

The three-year-old article reported that county officials had decided to leave the sheriff’s law deputies south of town in the Rescue Squad building, where they had moved into emergency quarters following the August 2006 courthouse fire.

But to do this, the commissioners were also considering constructing an addition or even a new building at that location due to lack of space and because the building was, after all, for the Rescue Squad.

To figure out what happened after that, we talked to Glen Stotler, who was then county commission president, and Ron McIntire, who was then sheriff and is now assessor, as well as to others who were in on the planning. All agreed that there may not have been any big public announcement, but that plans changed as the situation developed.

Stotler said the big blow to the idea of building at the Rescue Squad headquarters came later in 2007 when it was estimated that the added facility would cost over $700,000. Officials were already worried about the debt they were taking on for the new courthouse. They were also warned that they couldn’t borrow money for a sheriff’s office as part of the financing for the courthouse, Stotler said.

This bind eased about a year later, however, when bids came in lower than expected for courthouse construction. This enabled them to finish the second floor for use by magistrate and family courts, thereby leaving their present building empty.

McIntire said the commissioners informed him that the sheriff’s law enforcement office would be moving into the Magistrate Court building. Two of the current commissioners – Brenda Hutchinson and Tommy Swaim — were in office at the time.

Anyone who has been involved in a major project, such as building a courthouse or even just a home, knows that plans can change as new facts and problems emerge. Apparently that’s what happened here.