
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 25, 1992                   TAG: 9203250121
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium

SUPERVISORS DISAGREE ON TEMPORARY COURT LOCATION

Temporary spaces for Pulaski County court facilities are being planned for when the renovation and expansion work starts on the brick courthouse later this year.

But not all members of the Pulaski County Board of Supervisors are in agreement on proposed arrangements.

Supervisor Bruce Fariss objected Monday night to relocating the circuit court clerk's office and records vault to a gymnasium connected to the former school building that is now the county administration building.

Fariss complained that young people already have little to do "except to get chased by the police from corner to corner" and was concerned that, once the gym was converted to temporary office space, it would never be available as a gym again.

"I know the place to put him: Hiwassee School," Fariss said, referring to another now-closed school building. "We could close one wing of Jefferson School and put the clerk over there," he added. Jefferson Elementary is scheduled for closing at the end of the 1992-93 school year.

County Administrator Joseph Morgan said court officials had wanted the clerk's office as close as possible to the courtroom and other facilities, rather than as far away as Hiwassee. Fariss was unsympathetic. "If I can make that drive every day, he can," he said.

The matter will be studied further.

Other moves would put the circuit courtroom, jury room and judge's chambers temporarily in the county administration building, and the general district and juvenile and domestic relations courts in the former Pulaski Theatre building which has been offered by its owner for space.

The movie theater closed at the beginning of the year.

The relocations could last a year while work is being done on and in the building that will then house all court facilities. The older stone courthouse, now being rebuilt following the 1989 fire that destroyed its interior, will house the offices of commissioner of revenue and treasurer.

The architect will now develop detailed plans and specifications on the brick courthouse project so it can be offered for contract bids to do the work.

by CNB