Washington County law library lends itself to new courtroom
Just a few weeks ago, work was beginning on a new judge’s bench and witness stand in the Washington County Courthouse law library. Court Administrator Patrick Grimm is at left.
On Thursday, Robert Ealy, an installer for Don Greer’s Fashion Floors, and his helper, Zac Brownlee, were carpeting the new set-up.
Washington County Courthouse, originally designed more than a century ago with two courtrooms, will now have space for eight.
With the gubernatorial appointment and confirmation earlier this summer of Damon Faldowski as Washington County’s sixth judge, Faldowski is holding court on the first floor of the courthouse in the area that, not too long ago, housed the recorder of deeds office.
The row office was moved to the Courthouse Square building, and the space was renovated to become the courtroom of then-Judge Janet Moschetta Bell.
Once Faldowski took the oath of office last month, Washington County Court was up to its full complement of six full-time jurists for the first time since the departure in January 2015 of then-President Judge Debbie O’Dell Seneca.
During the interim, senior judges John C. Reed of Mercer County and William R. Nalitz of Greene County were pitching in, sharing Moschetta Bell’s former courtroom. But with a large amount of property assessment appeals expected to be filed to Washington County Court following the first reassessment since 1981, and no let-up in either criminal or civil caseloads, the senior judges are staying here.
But the issue arose: Where could the senior judges preside on a regular basis?
Court Administrator Patrick Grimm and President Judge Katherine B. Emery conferred, choosing the law library as the site of the complex’s newest courtroom, and the county carpenters began work in earnest.
Washington, a fourth-class county due to population of 208,206, is on the cusp of moving up to a third-class county.
“It is my understanding that a county must have 210,000 residents (from the last census) to become a third-class county,” Grimm wrote in an email. “Criminal filings in our county far outpace those of other fourth-class counties.”
Grimm said he expects construction in the law library, on the basement level of the courthouse, to be finished in early September.
The law library suite, which has three rooms, will continue to function, and computer screens on a counter in the room with moveable stacks of shelves were being wired Thursday. Publications continue to be on display in the soon-to-be courtroom, and the law library-courtroom will be open to the researching public when court is not in session.