Design work on courthouse addition to begin in January
By ELENA GRIMM
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egrimm@daily-chronicle.com
SYCAMORE – A funding plan has been approved, and starting in January, a committee of county officials will begin designing an addition to the DeKalb County Courthouse.
What that addition will look like is up to this oversight committee and the architect it selects. But many who work within or closely with the 104-year-old building have an idea of what is needed.
Last September, a committee formed by Sycamore attorney Ron Klein first met to discuss how courthouse operations can be improved. Klein was asked by Presiding Circuit Judge Kurt Klein to head the committee.
The 11 members of the committee came from a cross-section of occupations; it included laywers, a judge, historians, a mayor and a contrator. Ron Klein also wanted representation from across the county, he said.
The group was charged with studying the existing space and looking at ways it can be expanded without interfering with the historic aspects of the building, he said.
A report of their findings and recommendations was given to the judge in June. Judge Kurt Klein declined comment for this story, saying he wants to report to the oversight committee first.
The recommendations include size estimates and general building configurations, but the group was not asked to come up with a design, nor did they have an operating budget to hire an architect.
“We did not attempt to lay out the interior,” Ron Klein said. “The county board has to work that out through its architects.”
The group did, however, suggest possible locations for an addition, either to the north side of the building or wings to the east and west sides.
Building a second courthouse in Sycamore or in another part of the county was discussed, but everyone on the committee agreed that it was necessary to keep the expansion to one building, and that all court-related functions be housed there, Ron Klein said.
Preservation
Another unanimous decision made by the committee was to preserve the courthouse’s historic form.
The report given to Judge Klein says, “any addition should insofar as possible, match the external features of the current building with similar types of colors and building materials with every effort made to conform to the other architectural features of the current structure.”
“Everyone is absolutely adamant about preserving the appearance and the historical aspects of the building,” County Administrator Ray Bockman said. “That’s a given.”
But it will be up to the committee and the architect it hires to decide how that will be done.
“Choosing the right architect is really the key to this whole thing,” said county board member Ken Andersen, whose district includes the courthouse and the county buildings on the east side of Main Street.
Andersen said that the biggest challenge will be preserving – not destroying – the courthouse’s beauty.
“It really says a lot about DeKalb County and the community and it’s really important that we maintain that look,” he said. “Work has to be done so that it will blend in and make it look like it’s always been there.”
Space
The DeKalb County State’s Attorney’s office is divided. The main office is across Main Street from the courthouse in the Legislative Center. A juvenile court assistant and her secretary sit in a small conference room in the courthouse.
“We are absolutely bursting at the seams,” DeKalb County State’s Attorney John Farrell said.
There aren’t enough desks for everyone in his office, so it can become a game of musical chairs. When someone is in court, their open desk is taken by whomever is left standing.
Farrell said that the office could use about one-and-a-half times the space it currently has – not taking growth into account.
Among the recommendations the committee made was that an addition needed to be at least 20,000 square feet to accommodate needs for the next 50 years. An expanded courthouse would be about 40,000 square feet, doubling the usable space of the current building.
Five additional courtrooms have been recommended to keep up with population growth, Ron Klein said.
When the committee toured the courthouse, he found it to be “extremely crowded” from top to bottom. Among the inefficiencies the committee found: Crowded areas in the circuit clerk’s office and the hallways when traffic court is in session, the state’s attorney’s office across the street and the public defender’s office in the basement.
Functionality
Early in their deliberations, the group that studied the courthouse concluded that it makes sense to keep all court-related functions in one building.
Right now, staff in Farrell’s office have to transfer all case files for the day from the Legislative Center to the courthouse in big carts, through all weather conditions and across a busy intersection.
“The convenience factor and the efficiency factor is enormous,” Farrell said of a courthouse expansion.
Being in the courthouse would make it easier to interact with other departments, especially filing paperwork with the circuit court office, he said.
However, the design should also make it harder for certain people to interact.
“One of the things we’d be looking for – for the jail officers more importantly – is better securing of the inmates,” said Jail Supervisor Lt. Joyce Klein, who also oversees courthouse security for the sheriff.
Currently, inmates wait in the jury box before court. Joyce Klein suggested having a holding cell off each courtroom, along with a secure hallway to escort inmates rather than a public hallway.
Inmates currently enter the jail through an employee door. After that, “they’re in with the public very quickly,” she said.
Another security issue is the traffic flow of the public. It’s difficult for security guards to keep track of who’s entering and leaving the building, and having a separate entrance and exit would ensure that people coming in don’t have contact with people already in the building, Joyce Klein said.
Oversight
County Board Chairwoman Ruth Anne Tobias is in charge of selecting members of an oversight committee for the courthouse project. She said that the group will consist of three county board members and several staff in the judiciary.
“They will be charged with selecting an architectural firm and approving a design, and will have oversight of the construction management,” Tobias said.
The group will begin work in January and will work for several years. Construction is expected to begin in June 2010 and finished in 2011.
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