Move to new court campus still in limbo
There is no set date for a planned move of the Tuolumne County Superior Court facilities from downtown Sonora to a new $70 million justice center courthouse off Old Wards Ferry Road following a postponement announced two weeks ago, Court Executive Officer Hector Gonzalez told The Union Democrat on Tuesday.
“It’s in the best interest of the entire community that it is going to be done the right way,” he said. “If that takes additional time to make sure that gets done correctly, we are going to take that additional time.”
The justice center courthouse was previously set to open to the public on Aug. 23, with court dates already assigned there prior to the postponement.
The announcement was made after multiple postponements to the opening of the new courthouse during the COVID-19 pandemic.
About two weeks ago, Presiding Judge Kevin Seibert and Gonzalez released a statement that said “a number of issues outside of the Court’s control prevent the Court from moving into and operating from our new courthouse on August 23, 2021, as planned. The Court is working on resolving these issues and will set a new date to move into our new courthouse once those issues are resolved.”
Gonzalez noted two reasons for the postponement, chiefly, ongoing security fixes on doors, holding cells and elevators.
“There were serious fixes in the new courthouse that had not been done,” he said. “We didn’t want to have to deal with them if we moved in.”
At this time, he said, there was no set date for contractors to fix the problem that was identified.
The construction on the new courthouse is paid for entirely by the State Judicial Council, not the county, and employed approximately 90 trade workers a day at the site, including employees from Norcal Glass, Joe Cover and Sons, steel workers and drywall
contractors.
Turner Construction, based in New York City, is the general contractor for the project.
“Once their responsibility is taken off, the burden will be on us locally for whatever wasn't done right,” Gonzalez said.
The Union Democrat toured the facility in July, and the vast majority of the interior was completed.
At that time, ongoing work was identified as a battery backup on the detention elevators and finishing equipment installation.
Gonzalez said another primary reason for postponement was that a mover that was contracted to move into the new facility “did not want to follow through” on the move proposal they submitted to the court.
The court is seeking out another mover at this time, Gonzalez said, but has not yet been able to find one.
Gonzalez did not provide the name of the moving company by deadline on Tuesday.
The justice center courthouse is a technological upgrade to the historic Tuolumne County Courthouse on Yaney Avenue, originally built near the turn of the 20th century.
The new courthouse will have five departments for the four judges and one commissioner, private staff offices, an expanded public access kiosk, a parking garage, and secure holding cells for inmates.