Courthouse expansion work on schedule, county officials say

BENTONVILLE — Demolition work for Benton County’s courthouse expansion is chugging along despite recent bad weather, county officials said Friday.

DT Specialized Services of Tulsa, Okla., started work Dec. 7. The contract is for $72,772, County Judge Barry Moehring said.

The one-story section behind the courthouse is being demolished. A two-story addition is planned on the site.

The concrete foundation is next to be torn out. Moehring and Bryan Beeson, county facilities administrator, said the project is on schedule despite losing work time this week because of snow.

DT Specialized Services got a quick jump on the job, so any time lost to weather shouldn’t impact the time line, Moehring said.

The 5,000- square- foot building once housed the juvenile detention center and later was sectioned off and used by other county offices, including the coroner, Beeson said.

The torn-down building was unusable space, Moehring said. The county will be able to get a bigger building on a smaller footprint with more parking, Beeson said.

Bids for the construction came in Thursday, Moehring said. Those will be considered next week, he said. Construction is expected to start in January.

A new courtroom is needed for Christine Horwart, who was elected in March and will be the county’s seventh circuit court judge. She takes office Jan. 1. The Arkansas Legislature added the judgeship to assist with the increasing caseload.

Horwart’s courtroom and office area will be on the second floor of the addition. A lobby will be on the first floor. The expansion will be 5,500 square feet. The downtown courthouse is now 28,080 square feet.

The county will finance $3.1 million for the expansion.

It secured the loan from Regions Bank for five years at 1.59% with no prepayment penalty, said Brenda Guenther, county comptroller. The Quorum Court approved the plan in July.

“I very much look forward to the completion,” Justice of the Peace Shirley Sandlin said. The building is in her district.

Sandlin, who didn’t run for reelection and served at her last Quorum Court meeting Thursday night, said she would have liked to have seen a completely new courts building, “but that is

not the case.”

“We definitely need the space and it buys us more time,” she said.

Moehring described it as a modest expansion on the day demo work started.

“It will take care of our courtroom needs for a good five or 10 years,” he said.

The development when finished will include 72 parking spaces and will provide a 12- foot sidewalk along East Central Avenue and an 8-foot sidewalk along Northeast Second Street, according to city planning documents.

Until the work is completed, Horwart’s courtroom and chamber will be in a small area in the courthouse

last used as a courtroom in 2012. The 888- squarefoot courtroom has been remodeled. The county budgeted $ 23,796 for the remodel.

Included in the court expansion is $231,783 to repair the annex where Circuit Judge Brad Karren holds court, according to documents. The annex is across the street from the main courthouse.

That project is winding down with outdoor signs and lighting left to do, Moehring said.

The courthouse expansion should wrap up by the end of 2021, Moehring said.