AUGUSTA — Planning for a new combined courthouse continues apace behind the scenes and should be visible to the public by late summer.

“The project really has started,” said James T. Glessner, state court administrator.

The architectural firm and the contractor are busy working on the project design, and the infrastructure will be the first work on the ground. New electrical lines will be needed to provide power needed for the four-story building, new underground piping has to be installed, and the project will involve a lot of digging and earth-moving.

The former home of Crisis & Counseling and the 1923 Augusta Spiritualist Church will be demolished in August and the public may start seeing a new building take shape by spring 2013, Glessner said.

The land between Winthrop and Court streets itself needs a zoning change — which is unlikely to take effect until July — so a four-story building can legally to built there.

City Manager William Bridgeo said the zone was changed a few years ago to business professional to accommodate a courthouse expansion. But to permit the building as it’s designed, the zoning must be changed back to Kennebec Business District 1, he said, and that designation must be expanded to include courts as a permitted use.

“The city has worked hard along with (state) Sen. Roger Katz, the legislative delegation and state government to keep the new courthouse at the traditional court square where it belongs,” Bridgeo said.

The city’s Planning Board will hold a public hearing on the proposed zoning changes 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 12, in the City Center Lecture Hall.

The board’s recommendation then goes to several City Council meetings for action. Enactment is unlikely before to July, according to Michael Duguay, the city development director.

The wait time is not being wasted.

A building committee consisting of judicial branch employees and a stakeholders’ committee of lawyers, police officers, media personnel and others have been meeting to make sure their needs are addressed as well.

Completion date for the new building remains sometime in spring 2015.

The building’s name could be something akin to the Kennebec Judicial Center, following the practice of providing a new name to the combined courts in Bangor, which are now housed in the Penobscot Judicial Center.

However, Glessner said the name for the new Augusta courthouse has yet to be decided.

Changed plans

The new courthouse will have access to seven courtrooms, with a main courtroom on the first floor allowing for jury assembly and arraignment. The building will meet standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and have several elevators and multiple bathrooms available to the public as well as conference rooms where attorneys can speak with clients.

“All of that is a high priority,” Glessner said.

All those entering the building will undergo security screening at the main entrance, a practice Maine Supreme Court Chief Justice Leigh Saufley has long advocated.

The building will feature a glassed-in stairwell, and new chambers for the judges. It will have a central heating and air conditioning system and get its fuel via a natural gas pipeline — if a proposed line is constructed, Glessner said.

The new building won’t be built with the granite block of the older courthouse, but some features will have the look of granite. Glessner said the end result will be an attractive building.

Meanwhile, the district and superior court clerks’ offices will be consolidated in the new building, and the first floor clerks’ offices in the older building will revert to the county, Glessner said.

Now, the county pays to operate the superior court building.

“You have these courthouses built in the 1800s and the state hasn’t had to pay for the costs,” Glessner said. “Now there will be another building around for 150 years, and there will be costs associated with it.”

The purchase of the former Crisis & Counseling Centers Inc. building for $1.65 million was completed last fall, and a contract to buy Augusta Spiritualist Church is being finalized.

The Rev. Earl Wallace, co-pastor of the church, said the church agreed last week to sell the property for $500,000 and also agreed to vacate the building by Aug. 1. Wallace said attorneys are preparing documents for signatures.

“We really didn’t anticipate buying the church,” Glessner said. “As we designed it, we realized the front door of the courthouse would be near where the church is.”

The $500,000 price tag may seem steep for the 42.5-by-80-foot lot that houses the 1923 church at Court and Perham streets.

However, Glessner said the architects and engineers calculated the cost of courthouse project if the church remains there — including deep excavating, pilings, and fencing — and came up with the half-million-dollar figure.

That, coupled with the fact that planners wanted to avoid having the main entrance on the steep slope of Winthrop Street, led to the decision to try to buy the neighboring property and take down the church.

Church officials have said they were happy to move from the shadow of the courthouse and simply wanted enough money to buy land and have a new church erected at a more visible location in or near Augusta.

Building experience

The purchase of the church allows the architectural firm, Portland Design Team, more options for the design.

“They’ve worked with us in the past on courthouse projects in Springvale, Lewiston and Biddeford,” Glessner said. The builder is Consligi Construction Co. Inc., of Portland, the same contractor that erected the Bangor courthouse.

“These are two entities that have experience in building courthouses,” he said.

The new, four-story building would be linked by a glass corridor to the large courtroom on the second floor of the 1830 granite building at State and Winthrop streets.

Access to that room and other second floor offices used by the state judicial branch would be through the newer building.

The new building will house superior, district and family courts as well as administrative office functions housed on Stone Street.

Parking for the courthouse, always a tricky issue, would be largely accommodated on a flat lot across Court Street and behind four privately owned properties which front Perham Street. “We’re still working with the city to determine how many spaces we have to have,” Glessner said.

A dozen or so parking spaces reserved for specified personnel and for jail transport vehicles would be built under the new courthouse. An sally port will be built into the Winthrop Street side of the building for prisoner transport.

A little over half the $62 million in state funds allocated for the Augusta combined courthouse project — and for planning for two other projects — was made available in a bond sale last November. That money must be spent within three years.

Glessner said the remaining bonds will be sold in 2013. The two-part process is to ensure money is available to complete the project, he said.

Betty Adams — 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com

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