Prior to the renovation of the municipal court building, located at 50 E. Columbia St. in Springfield, the public defender’s office was located on the same floor as the Clark County Prosecutor’s Office. This created the possibility of victims of crime coming into close contact with the alleged perpetrators or their legal representation, Hutchinson said.
The project aimed to move the public defender’s office to the first floor where it could also be located near the Municipal Court building’s security station.
“The entrance to the public defender’s was strategically placed right outside the security so that way anyone who is coming in to see the public defender can just go straight into that office and not have to go anywhere else in that building,” Hutchinson said.
An updated entryway to the building’s first floor was also created as a result of the renovation project.
The relocation of this office was somewhat of an initial “domino” in the project, creating a shuffle of other offices relocating to other spaces in the building, Hutchinson said.
Prior to the start of the municipal court renovation project, the Board of Clark County Commissioners moved out to the municipal building and relocated to the Springview Government Center, located on 3130 E. Main St. in Springfield.
The county’s title office also left its space on the first floor of the municipal building and moved to the A.B. Graham building, located at 31 N. Limestone St. in Springfield.
Other departments within the municipal court building have transferred office spaces. The county’s IS department, which was housed in the basement of the municipal court building, has moved to the fifth floor of the building.
While the renovations were under way, the county also authorized the update of wiring of floors in the building, totaling roughly $50,000. The previous wiring in the building, Hutchinson said, existed since the building’s creation in the early ‘80s.
“Because we were already under construction, we wanted to get some wiring done,” she said.
The reconfiguration of the offices is complete, with every office in its new designated space, Hutchison said, and cosmetic work on the building’s fourth floor, expected to be finished in the next few weeks, will mark the end of the project.
By the Numbers:
50: The Clark County Municipal Court building’s location on East Columbia Street
700,000: The total cost of the renovation project
50,000: The cost of wiring updates to the building
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