Courthouse is ‘great liability’ official says

By NICOLE CARTRETTE
Staff Writer

Ford Heath has seen a lot of courthouses in North Carolina.

In fact the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) official has seen all of them and he says Columbus County’s courthouse ranks somewhere at the bottom when it comes to safety and health.

“The courthouse is one of the worst I have ever seen,” Heath told the Columbus County Board of Commissioners Monday.

“I do have some real concerns about the Columbus County Courthouse,” Heath said, stating that as the health and safety consultant for the AOC he tries to visit each courthouse at least once every three years. “I had three pages of things I was writing – I quit writing,” he said of safety issues at the courthouse that he explained were too numerous to list.

“There is wood rotting with plywood over it,” Heath said. He said there were leaking light fixtures also.

“It’s massive – the renovations that are needed,” Heath said before recommending the board seriously consider building a new courthouse or doing major renovations to the old one in the next six months to five years.

“These folks are my people – they are your folks, your family and your relatives,” Heath said of courthouse employees.

He said he had security concerns and mentioned that on one occasion a defendant was handcuffed to a file cabinet behind a secretary’s desk.

“Judges and prisoners use the same bathroom – that is unheard of,” Heath said before asserting that the complaints aren’t all coming from the courthouse. “I see the need for grave improvement.”

Heath explained he was not an engineer but that a renovation would have to be massive.

“It’s a big list – it’s going to take you a while to get through it,” Heath said of his observations. “It’s a great liability.”

He said the board needed to be responsive in the next year to five years and pointed out that the condition of the building could contribute to lost wages and increased medical bills.

Heath told the board he would follow up with a letter to them that would ask for a response from them.

“Thank you for your attitude,” Commissioner Ricky Bullard told Heath of his straightforward approach.

“Can it be brought to safe conditions?” Commissioner Bill Memory asked.

He mentioned cockroaches and rodents being controlled through extermination and cleaning the air conditioning system.

He mentioned carpets that needed to be steam cleaned.

“I appreciate your candidness,” Commissioner Amon McKenzie said.

“This is a project that we have looked at,” Chairman Sammie Jacobs said.

District Attorney Rex Gore told the board he appreciated them listening to Heath.

Gore said that on any given day as many as 500 to 600 people walk through the doors of the courthouse.

“All of you have been there and know the situation we are in,” Gore said. “Those of you who hold that building dear want it to continue to function (despite) the reality of knowing that our court system and needs have changed.

“Since 1984 there has been a 307 percent increase in cases and we are still operating in that building,” Gore said.

He pointed out that in a recent murder trial the victim’s family shared a bathroom with the person who killed their son.

He said victims need a secure and safe place apart from the general population. “We have never been able to do that in Columbus County,” Gore said.

He recommended the county look into federal and state grants and pointed out Medicaid charges would help in reducing the county’s budget constraints.

“You’ve got a hard job and I don’t envy you,” Gore told the board.

Clerk of Court Sheila Pridgen said on one day in August, 900 traffic cases were on the calendar. She said luckily not everyone showed up. “I’m not sure the second floor would hold all of the people,” she said.

“I have been there since 1973 and there has been very little work done since I started,” Pridgen said.

“There are a lot of needs in that building. It’s really a safety hazard to the people there,” she insisted. “It’s going to fall through one day if somebody doesn’t get the initiative to get something done.”

The board agreed to look into forming a committee to look at options for the courthouse situation.

Public Utilities Director Leroy Sellers told the board that the building was simply not designed to handle the kind of traffic that comes through the courthouse.

He said leaking light fixtures are caused by extremely hot temperatures outside paired with extremely cold temperatures inside the courthouse.

He said the thermostat for the courtrooms is set at 64 degrees and causes condensation on the light fixtures.

McKenzie said he recommended all board members take the Pridgen tour. “The Shelia Pridgen tour – that is one item you will never forget, I assure you,” McKenzie said.

Bullard said until the time comes that the county can afford to do otherwise that he thought the building should be kept clean.

“I think we need to keep it clean,” he said. “I still think it needs to be sprayed if it has roaches,” Bullard told Sellers who was explaining that the building was under a pest control contract.

“I think it is embarrassing that you have a facility that is old but not kept clean,” Bullard said.

Memory said the one-fourth cent sales tax that goes before voters this November is needed. “We need the one-forth cent sales tax to do some projects like this,” he said.

Under state law the county is to provide court facilities while the state provides personnel, but with tight budget constraints in recent years, county funding to the courthouse for renovations and repairs has been cut.

The roughly $125,000 a year the county receives from certain court costs doesn’t come close to covering the expenses for janitorial services, pest control, utilities and salaries for maintenance workers, county expense reports show.