City, county, state officials planning judicial campus

BANGOR – County, city, and state officials continued work Tuesday on a master plan aimed at easing the space crunch plaguing the state court system and several county operations, chief among them the crowded jailhouse.

During a meeting of the Penobscot County commissioners, representatives from the three levels of government and WBRC Architects and Engineers of Bangor, hired to craft the master plan, discussed information compiled to date and tasks that remain.

Among the constraints the various government units must contend with are limited space and funding, parking pressure and increasing security needs.

The goal is to reach consensus on a draft proposal in time for presentation this fall to Chief Justice Leigh Saufley, who requested a proposal during a March visit to Bangor to discuss facility needs.

If the plan passes muster, the next step likely will be to pursue state funds for court improvements and parking spaces, Lee Umphrey, Bangor’s intergovernmental affairs coordinator, said Tuesday.

While District Court space issues prompted the search for a solution, the court isn’t the only unit in need of more space.

The jail, overhauled in 1988, is at or over capacity most days and there isn’t enough space for all the court records that need to be maintained, to cite some examples. The district attorney’s office, which now has 4,260 square feet of space, estimates it needs triple that.

Officials involved in the planning process are contemplating a campus-type setting that would house the District and Superior courts, law library and county functions. They say the campus concept would help maintain efficiency while containing cost. Saufley concurred.

County, state and city representatives have been working for at least three years now to find more space for the state court system, which has outgrown its quarters on Hammond Street.

A site sketch prepared earlier by WBRC showed that the county and city have about 6.5 acres to work with.

The area, bordered by Hammond, Central and Court streets and the Kenduskeag Stream, now houses the county courthouse, the district attorney’s office annex, the county jail and Bangor District Court, all owned by the county.

Also on the site are the city-owned Bangor Police Department and W.T. Grant building, located on the corner of Hammond and Franklin streets, parts of which Cadillac Mountain Sports is leasing.

County, city and state officials have mulled several options for addressing the space problem in recent years but have not come to any decisions.

A suggestion from two years ago called for the county to buy the Grant building from the city and redevelop its top three floors to suit the state court system.

A more recent proposal would have moved District Court to Bangor’s police station, which the city plans to replace soon, while another called for adding a third floor to the District Court building.