A proposal to move court and judicial services out of the Greene County courthouse in downtown Greensboro and into a new Judicial Center is just one part of a bigger vision held by county leaders.
Pieces of the puzzle have been coming together for what County Manager Byron Lombard calls a “one-stop shopping” area for county services on C. Weldon Smith Drive.
He says people will be able to, in one place, get a Georgia driver’s license and their car tags, register to vote, file for their homestead exemption, and a whole lot more.
The entrance sign along Oconee Avenue calls it the Greene County Public Service Campus.
The C. Weldon Smith Drive entrance road has been moved in the last two years. A new fire and rescue station unit now resides in a new extension of the original building. More space was added to the Board of Elections and Driver Services offices.
Since last year, the Greene County Jail has been located at the C. Weldon Smith campus and is undergoing a $5 million renovation. Inmates have been moved to the Morgan County jail in Madison until construction is complete. There are long-range plans to expand the jail.
If the commission approves the move of judicial and court services to a new Judicial Center there, it will be located where the current rodeo arena is, right next to the jail.
Lombard says that will free up two sheriff’s deputies each day when the court is not in session, providing more patrols in the county.
Inmates will be walked only a short, secure distance to their trials in the courthouse, not transported by vehicles to the courthouse downtown.
Last month, at its regular July 9 meeting, the BOC unanimously approved the design and construction of another building at the C. Weldon Smith campus.
The estimated $6.5 million project would be the new home for the county planning and zoning, tax commissioner, and tax assessor’s offices that are currently located in the lower level of the County Administration building on Silver Drive.
Lombard says the upper-level offices for county administration, finance, and human resources must expand. Finance and HR would move to the lower level of the administration building because of the increased “growth in the county, demand on services and, especially, planning and preparing for the future.”
Office space at the downtown Greensboro courthouse seems to have started the discussion years ago, which led to the idea of a Greene County Public Service Campus. The 175-year-old building was last expanded in 1998.
Last week, Probate and Magistrate Judge LaVerne Ogletree told the Lake Oconee News that she has been advocating since 2009 for additional space for offices and storage on the first floor.
She says there is plenty of room to expand on the third floor and no need for a new $26 million Judicial Center.
“I think this building can accommodate what we need to do for both now and the future,” she said. “If there are judicial functions that need taken care of that this building cannot accommodate, I think an annex downtown would be the appropriate thing.”
Last Friday, she agreed to take a Lake Oconee News reporter on a courthouse tour.
Overcrowding is most evident in the Superior Court Clerk’s office, where desks and people are pushed together in a relatively small space.
Otherwise, employees in other parts of the building are not as closely packed together, but most sit at desks in rooms chopped up by walls.
Two of Ogletree’s employees have to sit in a vault at desks next to shelves of historic documents.
Many rooms in the courthouse are dedicated to storing books of county records dating back to 1786. New carpeting and polished hardwood floors are needed everywhere.
The third floor has a large courtroom, but five vacant rooms are suitable for good-sized offices. Ogletree says the rooms have been vacant since 2019.
A 2022 study to evaluate overcrowding in the courthouse and the need for a new judicial building reported signs of mold and mildew in the basement. It also said there are violations of current ADA accessibility codes, room spaces too small to be functional, problems with the HVAC system, and limited accessibility to the indoor equipment located in the ceiling.
The report also mentioned, without giving specifics, “some structural/settlement issues.”
Judicial Center plans
The county has already spent $1.1 million on an architectural design plan for a Judicial Center, which could be lost if the BOC fails to approve it.
The architectural design shows a ground floor with at least 50 offices or conference rooms, storage areas, large restrooms, stairs, and elevators in about 75 percent of the area. Approximately 25 percent of the ground floor is noted as future office space.
The second floor is smaller but contains three large courtrooms, three jury rooms, judge’s chambers, more conference rooms, waiting rooms for trial defendants, and secure holding areas for inmates in criminal cases.
The county suggests that the 175-year-old courthouse should be home to the Chamber of Commerce and Development Authority and become a Welcome Center with exhibits, events, and activities that leverage its historical value to draw visitors into the downtown area.
“There’s got to be a reality check here,” Commissioner Ernie Filice, a Judicial Center supporter, told the Lake Oconee News. “When you look at some places ... the only thing they have in Madison is magistrate, DA, and probate in the courthouse. Monroe is not the only town, but it’s rural, and they’ve moved their courthouse completely out of town. The building is being used for a lot of things. We can do the same thing here.”
The vote
More than 100 people attended a public hearing on July 29, and all of those who spoke supported the courthouse.
“We have already struggled with reducing traffic from the loss of Yesterday Café.” At the meeting, Trey Daniels of the Greensboro Business Association (GBA) told commissioners. “The GBA wants and needs downtown Greensboro to thrive as a hub of economic activity that is supported by the courthouse and its employees and visitors.”
Opposition to moving judicial services out of the courthouse has helped convince three BOC members — Angela Deering, Jeffery Smith, and Dee Lindsey — to advocate for further evaluation of the courthouse situation.
At its monthly meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 13, the BOC will discuss “the structure, composition, and parameters” for a committee to “review space allocation within the courthouse.”
The county’s vision of an area 1.7 miles away from downtown as a center for county services, including judicial, has yet to be decided.