BELLEFONTE — Relief is now in sight for two county offices that are confined in some pretty cramped quarters at the Centre County Courthouse.
March 17 marked the ceremonial opening of the county’s Temple Court building at 106 E. High St. The recently renovated former mercantile/office building will soon host the county’s Probation and Parole Department, as well as the District Attorney’s Office.
“Certainly Centre County has grown, and certainly as it grows, as you introduce new citizens to the community, some will get divorced and some will get in trouble,” said President Judge Thomas King Kistler, after greeting the audience in his best Leprechaun voice on St. Patrick’s Day. “But, also, things have become more complex when you add things like domestic violence that weren’t maybe addressed in the courthouse in generations past.
“There is a lot of work that goes on here, so the space we’re gaining today is really necessary. Necessary for not only the employees, who have been sitting on top of each other, at times, almost, but also to the public that has to access those offices. They have to be safe. There needs to be security. They need to know that when they come here that they are coming to a place where, even if there has been violence in the past, they know they’ll be safe.”
Kistler, who announced earlier this year he would not seek retention as the county’s president judge in 2017, said he started working in the courthouse at the age of 16 with his father’s law firm. He said all county offices were located in one building then.
But, as the county expanded, the local government did as well. Eventually, the Willowbank Building was purchased for expansion, as well as the Courthouse Annex building, which is located adjacent to the soon-to-open Temple Court building.
“And, today, with this building, we’re expanding further down the block,” he said.
CLOSE QUARTERS
In 1985, the Centre County Probation Department employed a chief, seven officers and four on the administrative staff. In 2017, there are 19 probation officers on the roster and the administration team has grown to seven.
Within the next two months, these employees will move to their new offices on the first and second floors of 106 E. High St.
“We are a very progressive court and a growing court,” said Tom Backenstoe, director of probation and parole in Centre County. He noted the department’s aggressive fines, costs and restitution collection program, DUI court and expanding IPP drug program as innovative additions to the system since his hiring. He said another service will be added in October with the county’s drug court, which will require even more space.
“We really appreciate the opportunity to get to move into this building.”
Currently, the county’s probation and parole officers are operating in a tight area in the Centre County Courthouse, described by court program supervisor Ron Millward.
“If you ever see Wall Street at its worst, with all the chaos and the noise and the people moving in and out … Tom (Backenstoe) and I just left that. It’s like that every day,” said Millward. “We arrest people, ongoing, all day long, and for the last 15 years, we’ve been doing that, in the best way I can explain it, in a phone booth.”
He said the new offices will not only benefit the employees, echoing Kistler’s remarks of employees “sitting on top of each other,” but also the offenders and the community members helped through the department.
“Sometimes, the conversations we have are very personal and (stressful),” Millward continued. “Having the ability to have that officer talking to a person in privacy and develop a rapport with that person is very important. We’re very thankful for this opportunity.”
GROWING CASELOAD
In 2007, the District Attorney’s Office handled about 1,500 criminal cases through the Centre County Court of Common Pleas. Since then, that workload has increased tremendously. In 2016, about 3,000 cases were handled by county prosecutors.
“We haven’t been able to grow with the caseload. There is just no room left there at all,” District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller said. “People are surprised when they come into our office and they are shocked just how small it is in there.”
Currently, the DA’s office is comprised of seven assistant prosecutors, two victim witness advocates and another seven on the support staff.
She thanked the commissioners for their support in helping the office expand its staff; however, she noted that with staff expansion, the office lost even more, much-needed space.
“We lost our conference room several years ago and had to turn that into an attorney’s office,” Parks Miller said. “So we haven’t had a conference room for many, many years. We have up to 600 matters open at all times, including homicide trials with hundreds of pieces of evidence, and we have nowhere to lay it all out.”
She said the move will also make a difference for crime victims who need to visit the office for matters related to their cases.
“When victims of crimes come to meet us, they have to come into tiny offices, that are by necessity, full of boxes, in some cases, stacked clear to the ceiling,” said Parks Miller. “We have to have staff run in to clean it out and jam it into another office. These people are dealing with some of the worst moments of their life. I feel them seeing a professional appearance would mean a lot to them.”
Centre County Commissioner Michael Pipe thanked the many people involved in the project, including county staff, Bellefonte Borough, designers and contractors, as well as past county officials and community leaders.
Commissioner Mark Higgins said the opening of the Temple Court building is another positive addition to the Bellefonte community, noting 14 new businesses have opened in the downtown in the past year — and that all 14 are still operating today.
FIVE-YEAR PROCESS
Centre County Government purchased the 1894 multi-story brick building adjoining the Centre County Courthouse Annex in June 2012. The building was originally constructed to house mercantile in the first-floor storefront spaces, with the upper three stories for office space. According to an excerpt from Pennsylvania County News, the architecture office of Anna Wagner Keichline, the first registered female architect of Pennsylvania, was once located in this building, along with law offices and prominent businesses such as Central Railroad of Pennsylvania, Bellefonte Furnace Co. and Whiterock Quarry.
Just three months after the county purchased the building, a devastating fire destroyed two neighboring structures, causing only minor damage to the Courthouse Annex and Temple Court buildings; however, the fire delayed rehabilitation on the 106 E. High St. property.
Finally, in June 2014, renovations began, and, according to Pipe, just a few more minor things need to be put in place before the new offices can be occupied.
“There are just a few little things to work out, then we’ll take a weekend and get everything moved over,” said Pipe. “I can’t imagine it being any longer than two months.”
In conjunction with the renovations at Temple Court, the county completed an assessment of the space that will open up within the historic courthouse to determine the needs and expansion for the offices that remain, as well as what possibilities could be added in the future. Pipe said a team consisting of representatives from related county offices will begin discussing the future of the open courthouse space soon.
