34th District Court to move to Merriman Elem. School by Aug. 1

By Aug. 1, the 34th District Court in Romulus should be temporarily housed in the former Merriman Elementary School, 15303 Merriman Road, south of Eureka, while the current building is being partially demolished and rebuilt.
Chief Judge Tina Brooks Green said on Friday that they hadn’t expected to vacate the current building while the upgrades were put in place, but over the past month it was apparent they would save money if they just got out of the way.
“As much as I would not like to do that, we will. It’s a business decision, but it’s going to be an ordeal,” she said. “Hopefully the chaos will be organized.”
It is expected to take somewhere between 12 and 18 months before they can move back into the new facility. The $11 million project will add 15,000 square feet to the 25,000-square-foot building.
The court has hired OHM as architect and George Auch as construction manager. Last week, Judge Green, Judge Brian Oakley, and Court Administrator / Magistrate Al Hindman went to 52-3 district court in Rochester Hills to check on Auch’s work and get ideas for the new building.
The bond will be paid through a $20 funding unit fee that has been levied on all tickets for the past year and a half and continues to be levied. While the City of Romulus is pledging its full faith and credit to the bonds, the court will be making all the bond payments.
“The building will be paying for itself,” Judge Green said. “The city is not sticking its neck out.”
Judge Green said sometime in May she expects to go before the communities in the 34th District Court area to present the court’s new budget and explain what is going on with the building upgrades. She plans to bring a new illustration of the building to show to the communities.
The 34th District Court services the cities of Belleville and Romulus and the townships of Huron, Van Buren, and Sumpter, as well as Lower Huron Metropark and Metro Airport.
Last week, offenders assigned to the court’s work program started working on Merriman School to get it liveable for the court. Judge Green said they didn’t want to pay construction crews to do the work when the work program could do it.
The court will have just half of the school building, sharing it with another renter.
The courtrooms will be in classrooms and the three judges and their clerks will share a single, central classroom.
“We don’t have the ability for privacy and it will be very cozy. We’ll all be together,” Judge Green said, noting they might want to put tape on the floor to separate the offices.
Judge Green said working on the new court is like having a new part-time job. She and Judge Oakley and Hindman have been meeting every Thursday and now are being joined by Judge David Parrott. Hindman is putting in many hours before his regular work day and after his work day is over. They are all working without extra pay, she said.
She said at the end of the project, it will be Hindman who will be getting all the credit for getting the building completed because he is working so hard.
Judge Oakley half-jokingly said he expects Hindman to have turned into a stooped-over old man with white hair after the project is over because he is putting in so many hours.
“It’s a labor of love,” said Judge Green. “We think the community needs this. We didn’t realize how much work it was going to be, but I don’t want to turn this over to anyone else.
“Al is the front person, doing all of the leg work,” she emphasized.
Judge Green said they will build the project around the dollars, not the dollars around the project, meaning they will not go over the bond amount available. She said they expected to get numbers from the construction manager on April 12.
She said the new building will have technology that will allow the court to go paperless and have more capabilities. She said most of the ticket payers are not criminals, but customers. She wants to make the court visit as “not unpleasant” as possible for its customers since for most people their only experience with the court is to deal with a ticket.
“We will be better able to serve the public,” Judge Green said.