Judicial Center off the docket for now

They showed up to decry the potential move of the county’s court system to a new judicial center on Brucke Strasse where the sheriff’s office and community corrections are located.

The county is conducting an extensive overhaul of the county’s security center and community corrections to potentially create a new judicial campus housing the updated buildings and a new judicial center on the property.

A letter circulated among downtown businesses in recent weeks forecast that the potential impact of the county’s court systems and other judicial offices being moved to Brucke Strasse would be devastating to the Square and businesses around it. In response, those business owners and interested residents filled the county council chamber at the joint council/commissioners meeting that was held Monday afternoon to discuss progress as well as hear projected costs on the project.

Former Dubois County Judge Bill Weikert, the author of the letter, was at the meeting to voice his concerns in front of a standing-room-only crowd. He told the elected officials the downtown would die if the courts and supporting offices were moved. Several business owners supported his assessment stating that visitors to the courthouse for court business also shopped at their businesses.

Former commissioner Larry Vollmer explained the courthouse wouldn’t be a courthouse if it didn’t have courts.

While design plans for remodeling and expanding the Dubois County Security Center and Dubois County Community Corrections building are still in the works, the county has dropped plans to build a new building to hold all of the courts and other offices for the moment.

Commissioner Chad Blessinger told the packed room that he had recommended postponing any plans for the new building in June for lack of support to from the council and commissioners to continue on that portion of the project at this time. He added that he would like to continue to consider making that a part of the campus in the future.

For the safety of the public as well as those involved in criminal proceedings, he explained it made sense to put the courts near the jail and corrections center.

Weikert also pointed out that with an apparent decrease in jail inmates this year, the county should halt its plans and reassess the project with the new data. He told them they should consider the impact the pandemic has had on jobs and incomes in Dubois County in regards to the new income tax that will be used to pay for the jail and community corrections center.

“You should put a moratorium on that tax until it’s time to think about using it again,” he said. “You have people who aren’t having enough money to provide for themselves. We’re going to take an additional income tax from them? I don’t think that’s right. We need to put it off.”

The council passed a Correctional and Rehabilitative Facilities Local Income Tax (C and R) last year. It increased the county’s income tax by 0.2 percent to pay for the jail and community corrections updates. That tax cannot be used for the judicial center.

Architect Eric Weflen, with RQAW, told Weikert that postponing the project would certainly increase the cost. He added that while the number of beds was a factor in building the new center, it was only one of many. Besides being over its rated capacity on a regular basis, the building is not designed to be an efficient and safe jail.

In an assessment conducted by National Institute of Correction in 2018, a special committee formed to address issues at the jail was told the building was obsolete.

Weflen walked the commissioners and council through an update on the new jail and corrections center. He told them that RQAW is about 50 percent done with the design of the project.

Here is the presentation with the schematics of a proposed 195 bed jail.

Dubois county justice project discussion from Matthew Crane

The design incorporates the existing buildings and reconfigures them for space that is needed for classrooms, medical services and administrative areas.

The jail would include a new housing pod connected to the existing building. The pod would have an elevated control center with a clear line of sight into all common areas and cells. Common areas connect to separated groups of cells creating the ability to keep inmates separated according to the classification of their offenses and status at the jail.

The pod has room for expansion if needed in the future.

Community corrections would be expanded and have more room for female participants, new classrooms, lockers, and administrative areas.

The estimated cost for the jail and community corrections center, including soft costs, would be $31,371,000, according to Shireman Construction.