Smith County judge seeks to propose courthouse bond in 2020

Published 6:00 pm Tuesday, September 24, 2019

The Smith County judge said Tuesday he would like to propose a plan for a new county courthouse for potential voter approval in November 2020.

Nathaniel Moran gave a presentation to members of the Commissioners Court during the regular meeting on Tuesday and asked for them to approve the concept.

There was no official vote on whether to build a courthouse, but Moran said he needed to know if the Commissioners Court would generally agree to putting together a strong courthouse plan for voters in November 2020.

Moran showed an analysis he had been preparing of studies about building a new courthouse that date back to 1999. He said the issue has been studied thoroughly, and people generally agree a new courthouse is needed.

However, he said the Commissioners Court has yet to put together a formal plan for voters. He said good leadership requires the Commissioners Court to solve the problem, and putting it off would be poor leadership.

The current courthouse was dedicated in 1955 and is 64 years old. The courthouse replaced one built in 1910 that many considered the most beautiful building in Smith County.

Moran said the company Willdan completed a study of the courthouse on Sept. 3 with additional analysis. He said the company did the study for free because it was seeking to show what it is capable of.

The study showed that there is at least $12.8 million in heating, ventilation, air conditioning, mechanical, and electrical work needed on the current courthouse. That doesn’t include plumbing upgrades.

“Renovation of the existing courthouse is not a long-term solution to meet the security and logistical needs of the county given its growth to date,” Moran said, summarizing his analysis. “That’s my assessment of those studies.”

He added: “Construction in my opinion of a new courthouse and associated parking structure to accommodate the current and future needs of Smith County and its justice system is the best solution. That’s my read of these prior studies and assessments.”

In July, the Commissioners Court approved a facilities planning contract with Fitzpatrick Architects, which has proposed a makeover of downtown Tyler, and the Dallas-based project management firm Project Advocates LLC.

The two companies gave presentations at the Tuesday meeting about what they could do, and Moran said he would ask the Commissioners Court next week to approve about $1 million in contracts to begin the planning for the new courthouse and a new road and bridge facility.

Brandy Ziegler, of Fitzpatrick Architects, said the No. 1 priority in design should be security. She said her firm has worked on courthouse designs for the full 20 years, and realized that security needed to be the No. 1 priority after the 2005 shooting.

“We’ve planned and planned and planned,” Ziegler said. “We’ve looked at different ways that we can solve security, and you cannot inject the security we need into the existing structure. There’s not enough room.”

She pointed to a model that would have separate hallways for people who cannot interact during cases, such as judges, inmates facing trial, and members of the public. The model also included separate elevators.

Steve Fitzpatrick said potential locations could be west of the downtown square, existing county-owned property on the east side of the square, county property north of the square formerly owned by Gulf State Lumber Company, or even the square itself.

“We don’t know if that’s it or if there’s a better location or what,” Fitzpatrick said. “There’s always going to be the connection to the jail as a factor. Some of those sites might get ruled out just because of that.”

Phil Miller, of Project Advocates, said his company helps public entities save money on major projects, like building schools and courthouses. He said he worked with the Commissioners Court for the Smith County Jail upgrade that opened in 2015.

Judge (Moran) also asked us to speak to inflation costs. This is an index of construction costs. We track all the indexes very closely and the one thing you can be certain of — construction costs always go up.

Miller added: “Delaying a project or moving it down the road will never make it cost less.”

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