SCHENECTADY COUNTY Space a hurdle in court plan Family Court likely to require additional building BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Michael Lamendola at 395-3114 or lamend@dailygazette.com.
Schenectady County may have to construct a separate building for Family Court to address long-running space concerns in the county courthouse. The state Office of Court Administration has ordered the county to provide Family Court with better and more efficient facilities, to alleviate overcrowding and improve security. The county has been working to comply with the state order for several years. The plan currently under review is to consolidate the courts from four buildings into two — the County Office Building and the existing courthouse. But the plan has a flaw, said Vito Caruso, administrative judge for the 4th Judicial District. He is working with the county. Under this plan the county would relocate staff offices from the County Office Building to the Trustco building. It would then convert the County Office Building into court space. The space would include City Court, now housed at City Hall and at Police Department headquarters on Liberty Street. Family Court currently occupies two floors of the County Office Building. Caruso said architects have determined the County Office Building, which is adjacent to the county courthouse on State Street, cannot meet all the functions of the various courts to be housed there. The building contains a center well that is considered dead space and can’t be filled in. “The biggest problem with the County Office Building is that even if we stripped it down to walls, the center corridor remains, and that is where the wasted space is,” Caruso said. “Everything can’t fit into two buildings, and we may have to go to three buildings, which is a savings because now we have four buildings,” he said. Caruso said the county is reworking the plan. “It isn’t impossible, but it is really shoe-horning everything in and that is what we are trying to avoid,” he said. The third building for Family Court would be constructed near the county courthouse and the County Office Building. “We will explore the possibility,” Caruso said. County Attorney Chris Gardner said the cost of the new building has yet to be determined. “That would be another cost, if that were to occur,” he said. Caruso said the goal is to keep the project’s cost as low as possible, as the county would have to pay for it entirely. “We are mindful of the expense that is involved here. The state doesn’t provide any money,” he said. Prior plans, all rejected, carried price tags up to $36 million. The county is prepared to borrow $4.4 million to fix the former Trustco building on Erie Boulevard as soon as the state OKs a final plan. The county bought the seven-story building in 2005 for $2.4 million and conducted a $200,000 environmental study of the property. The state is still awaiting a comprehensive plan addressing the needs of all the involved courts, which include County Court, City Court, Surrogate Court, Family Court and state Supreme Court, said OCA spokesman David Bookstaver. “We have been back and forth, but they owe us a final plan,” he said. “We will work with the county and get it done.” There is no deadline for the county to submit the plan, Bookstaver said. “We can’t force them to have an unfunded plan. The last resort is to withhold money. It is the hammer, but it is not a real good idea.”
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
Right-the same Democratic leaders (sic) that can't open a gin mill after wasting $3 million, can't enlarge the Main Library after wasting $200,000, are now going to build a Court House? Get Metroplex Ray involved it will never open.
Wait until Sal hears about the Jail situation that's been mandated for years ... that hasn't been completed/started. Add that to the COB cost and we're gonna see a skyrocket. But - of course - they're not addressing that mandate this year either.
I find it surprising that we need a larger court. I though crime was down? I know this is family court, but with crime being down, you would think there would be plenty of available space.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
I find it surprising that we need a larger court. I though crime was down? I know this is family court, but with crime being down, you would think there would be plenty of available space.
Bumble ... you're starting to act like Sal ... PLEASE ... come back toward the light.
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Right-the same Democratic leaders (sic) that can't open a gin mill after wasting $3 million, can't enlarge the Main Library after wasting $200,000, are now going to build a Court House? Get Metroplex Ray involved it will never open. 
