Top pick for courts to be made Firm to reveal choice for Bangor-area site

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BANGOR – The New York consulting firm hired to analyze potential sites for expanding the state courts in Penobscot County will unveil its recommendation this week during a public meeting at Bangor District Court.

The meeting is set for 1:30 p.m. Friday, April 15, in Courtroom 1, according to an announcement issued Tuesday by the Administrative Office of the Courts.

Cost figures for the project, expected to be upward of $20 million, also will be presented during Friday’s meeting, which will be followed by a weeklong comment period, State Court Administrator James “Ted” Glessner confirmed Tuesday.

As it stands, nine sites in Greater Bangor are under consideration. Six of the potential sites are in Bangor and include the existing superior and district court site at the corner of Hammond and Court streets. Three sites are in neighboring Brewer.

Which site the firm will recommend remained a well-kept secret this week, though at least one city councilor had a prediction it would be in Bangor.

Both city and county officials say they haven’t been told which site the consultant, Ricci Greene Associates of New York, N.Y., will recommend.

Glessner said Tuesday no group – county, city or other – would be told the site of choice before Friday’s meeting.

“The reason we have to do this is [that] this has gotten a lot of attention from people with different interests,” he said Tuesday in a telephone interview. To avoid leaving anyone out, everyone will be informed together.

Rob Fisch, a court planner and principal with Ricci Greene, also declined Tuesday to divulge the firm’s choice, saying his client, the state, hadn’t authorized him to do so.

Ricci Greene, which also has offices in Kentucky, specializes in court facilities. It has designed federal, state, county and municipal courts and corrections facilities around the country and in Argentina. The Penobscot County project, however, is the company’s first project in Maine, Glessner said.

Glessner said the state hired a specialist because the Bangor court expansion was among the largest projects proposed to date in the state.

State court officials are in the process of exploring their options for expanding the district and superior court facilities, which Glessner has said no longer meet the state’s needs.

Ideally, Glessner said, the state would like to consolidate the two court operations into a single facility so that the state could realize some efficiencies in areas such as security, technology and staffing.

Glessner also said the state was seeking a site that was prominent, could accommodate expansion, had access to parking and was handy to downtown Bangor.

County and city officials have said they are worried that the departure of the courts from the downtown could trigger an exodus of other services and increase their respective operating costs.

Many Bangor residents and members of the city’s legal community also have said they would like to see the court facilities stay where they’ve been for more than a century.

Fisch said their words haven’t fallen of deaf ears.

“We listened to what people had to say,” he said. He also said, however, that much more factored into the decision.

“It’s not a black-and-white test, it’s not a pass-fail,” Fisch said. “It’s how the sites stack up against each other. [The recommended site] has to stand up to scrutiny.

“We’re technicians – that’s what we are,” he said, adding, “Our evaluation is based on the stated needs of the court.”

The consultant said that “cost was not necessarily a major consideration,” adding that political forces also might come into play.

Bangor City Councilor Dan Tremble said Tuesday he thought the site will be one bounded by Exchange, Washington and Hancock streets and located along the Kenduskeag Stream.

“That’s where they want it,” Tremble said. “I think they may have stated that publicly.”

He said the city has control over that site, and if chosen, the site would remain off the tax rolls.

Several of the sites that made it to the state’s list stem from ads the state ran in January. The ads said the state was seeking a site with at least 1 acre, able to house combined district and superior court facilities of up to 150,000 square feet and parking for at least 75 vehicles.

More than two years ago, the county and the city developed their own master plan calling for new facilities or expanding current facilities on the existing 6.5-acre plot where the courts, jail and Police Department now sit in the area of Hammond and Court streets.

But after a recent state feasibility study suggested it would be cheaper to start from scratch at a new site than try to redevelop the current one, city and council officials became concerned that the state might move the courts away from the county complex, possibly out of downtown altogether.

Glessner said the goal is to get the project authorized and funded during this legislative season.

After the close of the comment period on April 22, a final site decision will be made by Chief Justice Leigh Saufley of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, with comment from staff. The project then moves to the next phase, namely working with the Legislature to obtain authorization and funding.

While he’s worked closely with city and county officials, Glessner noted he must be able to show the Legislature that a range of options was considered before a final decision was reached and before seeking funding for the project.