For over a decade, Lewis County has been looking for some way to separate the court system from the regular Lewis County Courthouse offices, largely due to spacing and safety concerns.

Former County Mayor Kenneth Turnbow and former County Mayor Van Ward had both looked at either finding a vacant building or empty warehouse around town to turn into a Justice Center, but nothing was available under one million dollars at the time. Also building a new Justice Center at the current jail was discussed, but quotes for that also came in at over one million. For reference, Wayne County has spent close to $3.5 million dollars recently on their building.

However, an opportunity arose and presented itself for such a project in 2018, when the "Old Sentinel Trust" building was purchased by Lewis County Government under former County Mayor Bill Webb's administration at a Delinquent Tax Sale in June of 2018, for a price of $230,000. Of that, $25,435 came right back to the Lewis County Government in back taxes...so the building's actual cost to the County was only $204,565.

Last year, in 2019, the County spent $118,903 on the building, mainly on renovations and also on repairs from substantial termite damage that was discovered.

The good news about that is probably 75 percent or more of that money was kept locally, as the majority of those funds were spent with local contractors and on supplies purchased at our local hardware stores in our community.

This year, in 2020, another $140,000 has been allocated in the budget to complete renovations and outfit and equip the building. And once again, around 75 percent of that money has been kept here by spending it with local contractors and local hardware stores. Also out of that money, $25,000 of it was from a fully funded State grant.

The parking lot was also paved, striped and outfitted this past summer at a cost of $42,000, but 100 percent of that was funded by a state grant, so zero local county tax dollars were used there.

So altogether...it looks like the County will have only spent about $438,468 in local tax dollars on a new Justice Center, which will easily appraise for over one million dollars once the project is complete. Here's the Math behind that = Purchase Price of $204,565 + 2019 Costs of $118,903 + 2020 Costs of $115,000 = $438,468 in ACTUAL LOCAL TAX DOLLARS.

"You certainly could not build and equip a new Justice Center for that low price, especially one like ours that has two large courtrooms, ADA compliant bathrooms, a large Jury/Conference Room, a large Utility Room, two Inmate Holding Cells with bathrooms, two Judge's offices, an office for the Circuit Court Clerk, an office for the Chancery Court Clerk, an office for our Judicial Commissioner, one Attorney/Client meeting room, and a small kitchen," said Mayor Keltner.

"In comparison, Mt. Pleasant allocated $2.9 million for their new judicial center in 2018, and it is only half the size of our building, plus it only has one courtroom, and does not have near as many offices."

Graham Kilsby

Halfacre and Keltner inside the main entrance of the new Justice Center

"Barring any unforeseen events, we're hoping to open up this new Lewis County Justice Center sometime in the Spring of 2021. This will take away nearly all of the third floor in the old courthouse, leaving the old courtroom itself available once a month or more for Commissioners meetings. All the new court cases will be held in the new building. However, you will still pay property taxes, vehicle registration etc. in the old building," continued Keltner.