State justice presses case for new Bangor courts

BANGOR – Calling the existing state court facilities in Bangor “grossly inadequate,” Maine Supreme Judicial Court Justice Paul Rudman pressed his case Thursday for new facilities that he said would better meet judicial and public needs in the future.

Speaking before a meeting of the Penobscot County Bar Association, Rudman, who sits on a committee of judges and other court personnel that is reviewing new courthouse sites, said that space is cramped and represents less than half the space seen in similar court facilities in other jurisdictions and other states.

At the 3rd District Court in Bangor, court clerks are nearly sitting on top of other clerks, heat and ventilation are “lousy,” and security is inadequate, he said.

“Our District Court is grossly inadequate,” Rudman said.

It’s the same next door at the Penobscot County Courthouse, a 100-year-old building that Rudman said has a nice exterior but “damn little inside.”

He said that building would need extensive renovations to bring it up to safety codes and in compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

In both courts, where sometimes volatile cases are heard, Rudman said it’s a matter of time before a violent incident occurs.

“Sometime we’re going to have an incident in one of our courts – we know it’s coming,” the judge said.

A small family court room in the District Court building was described by state consultants as the worst court they had seen.

In place of the existing five courtrooms, Rudman envisions one combined facility for District Court and Superior Court containing eight courtrooms, including an increase from one family courtroom to three. The facility should have three separate accesses, for the public, staff and prisoners, he said.

State officials are looking for a location to build a combined court facility. A firm location could be identified this spring, and given a legislative go-ahead, construction could begin in the summer of 2006, Rudman said after the session.

Few questions were asked of Rudman, but the Supreme Court justice said that a poll he took at Thursday’s meeting at Miller’s Restaurant said a lot.

A flurry of hands went up when Rudman asked who wanted the court to remain downtown.

But exactly where downtown has been a contentious issue.

Bangor and Penobscot County officials have been critical of the process, claiming that not enough information had been proffered by the state and that the state already had made up its mind without exhausting all options.

Penobscot County Commissioner Tom Davis during a November commissioners meeting pointedly asked whether the state was just paying lip service.

Rudman said Thursday that he resented those comments and asserted that the process had proceeded as it should.

“I think that we have done things right and aboveboard,” the judge said.

City and county officials and a local state representative have urged the state to strongly consider building on the existing site, including looking at the police station on Court Street that the city will vacate once a new police station is built on Main Street.

Rudman said he was troubled at the suggestion, particularly when the city determined it would be too expensive to build a new station on the existing site, yet is offering it to the state as a possible location.

“It just amuses me, how dumb they think we are,” the judge said.

Penobscot County Commissioner Peter Baldacci, a Bangor lawyer who attended Thursday’s meeting, said he was encouraged that state officials were providing more details about what they were looking for. He said he hoped they would include the county in the process.

Prospects of using the existing police station and adjacent property seem unlikely, although the city has offered as a prospective site a lot on Exchange Street near the Bank of America building.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court justice said his committee is looking at locations off the campus.

“We felt we had to look elsewhere and will have to look elsewhere in fairness to the state,” Rudman said. “We’re spending money that belongs to the taxpayer.”