Space is so tight in Adams County government buildings that one employee’s office is a closet. “It is a pretty nice closet,” said Pat Myers, the county’s director of facility planning and operations.
The situation, Myers said, underscores how population growth and increasing court caseloads are driving the need for more space in many counties.
“We’re all in the same boat,” Myers said.
Since 1999, Boulder, Weld, Douglas, Arapahoe, Bent, Logan, Pueblo, San Miguel, Summit, Teller and El Paso counties have built courtroom space. After years of delaying projects due to lean budgets, projects are busting out all over to catch up to needs.
Adams County spent $33 million with a half- penny-per-dollar sales tax to expand its jail in 2000. In today’s election, Adams County is asking voters to extend the tax for 20 years to finance, in part, a $28 million justice center expansion, a $42 million pre-trial holding facility and a $95 million central-government center.
Adams County services now are housed in 28 buildings and “it would be better if it’s in one place,” Myers said.
The county would like to build a campus with four or five buildings on 100 acres it bought a few years at E-470 and Sable Boulevard.
Routt County is building a $13.3 million justice center outside Steamboat Springs. It is scheduled to open next year.
In 2005, Douglas County spent $26 million on a justice-center expansion. A new $6.7 million building housing Douglas’ human services, veterans services, senior services and Tri- County Health Department staff will be dedicated in a few weeks.
County spokeswoman Wendy Holmes said the county also is contemplating an administration-building expansion and a four-story parking structure.
In Arapahoe County, a committee has been studying justice system space needs for the past year, and county officials are looking at how to better use administrative space. The jail was expanded in 2002.
That same year, Denver boosted space and consolidated services with the opening of the Wellington E. Webb Municipal Office Building.
Denver voters in 2005 approved a $378 million bond issue to build a downtown justice center that will open in 2009.
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
