DA: Courthouse plan ‘confounding’

BANGOR – Don’t build a gym without a locker room, the district attorney reminded Penobscot County commissioners Tuesday.

District Attorney R. Christopher Almy met with the officials to discuss the recent announcement that plans for the new courthouse in downtown Bangor won’t include office space for prosecutors and staff.

If the district attorney’s offices remain at their current location behind the old Penobscot County Courthouse, prosecutors in Bangor most likely would be farther from Superior Court courtrooms than prosecutors in any other county seat in the state, Almy said.

“That’s what’s so confounding,” Almy said of the decision not to include his staff’s offices.

Most district attorney’s offices are located in or near the courthouse that houses Superior Court.

“You don’t build a gym without building locker rooms,” Almy said.

A meeting between commissioners and the judiciary has not been scheduled, but Chief Justice Leigh I. Saufley said Tuesday that she was willing to “work with the county” to help determine what the county’s space options are.

“We could add another floor to the building if the dollars were authorized by the Legislature and the funding was found to pay for more space,” Saufley said. “Our decision must be based on how we can best spend taxpayer dollars, not on what is best for the court system.”

Maine Supreme Judicial Court Justice Warren Silver presented preliminary plans for the $37 million courthouse last month to a group that included Almy’s representative, court clerks, local lawyers, law enforcement officials and others who will use the building.

The Penobscot County Judicial Center will be located in downtown Bangor on the corner of Exchange and Washington streets, next to Kenduskeag Stream.

Silver said last month that because of budget constraints and security requirements, 10,000 square feet for the district attorney’s office would not be included in the 90,000-square-foot building. A much smaller workspace has been included so prosecutors would be able to work while in the building.

Commissioners on Tuesday did not discuss specific options, which could include keeping the district attorney’s offices in current space: the 4,320-square-foot annex behind the current Penobscot County Courthouse. The county also could rent office space in a building downtown closer to the new courthouse.

The county now provides space rent-free for prosecutors, the courts and court personnel. The county would have had to pay rent to the judiciary for space in the new courthouse. Discussions about rental costs never took place.

In early discussions, Silver said last month, the new judicial center would have included 140,000 square feet and would have had room for the district attorney’s office. That space decreased to 90,000 square feet as construction costs continued to rise and the architects considered the constraints of building in a flood plain.

“They’re adding an expense to us that we have no control over,” Commissioner Stephen Stanley said.