ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 12, 1997 TAG: 9702120062
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: LESLIE HAGER-SMITH STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on February 13, 1997.
Under the plan adopted Monday by Radford City Council, cramped
conditions at the Public Safety Building on First Street would be
relieved by moving the sheriff, civil process servers, three holding
cells and storage space to the lower level of a planned addition to the
30-year-old Municipal Building at 619 Second St. That part of the plan
was described incorrectly in Wednesday's New River Current.
Radford City Council on Monday voted to proceed with expansion and renovation of the city's Municipal Building, rescinding previous support for a more costly new building.
The current plan - a modification of the eighth alternative that council has considered over the past year - is for a two-level addition to the southwest corner of the present Second Street building, in combination with renovations to about half of the old structure.
Consultants Thompson & Litton put the cost of the project at $2.5 million. The free-standing building council approved Dec. 2 would have cost nearly twice that, excluding land. If groundbreaking for the addition takes place by late fall, it will be complete by September 1998, according to City Manager Bob Asbury.
The road to Radford's courthouse improvements has been both long and rocky. A 1989 study committee appointed by the council found both the Municipal Building and the Public Safety Building on First Street to be "grossly inadequate," with little privacy, inadequate security and insufficient storage space.
Eight years later, the Radford Police Department, a magistrate's office, the fire marshal's office, the City Jail and the Sheriff's Office are still crammed into the damp and crumbling 104-year-old Public Safety Building. The new plan would relieve crowding there by making space for the sheriff, civil process servers, three holding cells and storage on the ground level of the existing addition to the Municipal Building at 619 Second St.
That addition, though modern in appearance, is nearly 30 years old. It houses city offices, council chambers and the city's three courts and is also overcrowded and short on storage. The new plans will capture underutilized lobby and corridor space in the present building and organize the city manger's offices into a "suite." Expansion on the main level will feature a 1,600 square foot multiuse chamber for Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, General District Court and City Council meetings. It will seat 150.
Circuit Judge Duane Mink, who has been instrumental to the building initiative, was on hand Monday to comment. On his counsel, space for the commonwealth attorney's office was dropped in lieu of 50 percent more space for the clerk of court, whose offices are currently housed in a trailer outside the north entrance to the building.
Mink's purpose in addressing the council was to make the plan's shortcomings clear before the city commits to it, he said. They include no additional parking and no increase in space for the commissioner of revenue, treasurer or director of finance. The new plan includes only a small computer office to address an overflowing law library.
Mink supports the new addition and renovation as a sound plan for the money, but acknowledged, "Every inch will be occupied as soon as you move in."
Two witness rooms in the new addition could double as small conference rooms. A larger conference room will also serve when private juvenile court matters are heard. Space is also on the boards for social workers, the Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program, judges' chambers and a waiting room for officers and attorneys.
Two important trends have vexed the council's attempts to remedy the space crunch. The first was a state initiative to establish a Family Court System. The General Assembly approved the concept but not funding for the project, which would have required more space for another judge, clerk and storage. Though all government facilities had been judged wanting, a new courthouse began to take on urgency. This prospect influenced the council's thinking from 1994 until recently, when it became clear the initiative would not go through.
A second influential factor has been the planned regional jail. Council formally gave its OK to adding Carroll, Floyd and Wythe counties to the the present partners in the project to build a jail in Dublin. Those partners include Bland, Giles, Grayson and Pulaski counties and Radford. Radford's participation in the authority has influenced planning for its own jail system.
Holding facilities in the ground floor of the planned Municipal Building addition will not serve as round-the-clock cells. That would require cots, toilets, food service and security checks every 30 minutes throughout the day. The City Jail in the Public Safety Building must continue in use until the regional jail is in operation. Then, said Mink, a study could be done to examine whether the new Municipal Building facilities could operate as more than holding cells.
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