Washington County purchases building, plans to move DA’s office
The addition of a seventh judge at the Washington County Courthouse will result in some changes inside the more than century-old building.
The county also bought the Caldwell Building across the street from the courthouse for $400,000, finalizing the sale last week.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the quickest closing I鈥檝e been through,鈥� Scott Fergus, Washington County director of administration, said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a good county asset.鈥�
The county commissioners first raised the possibility of purchasing the Caldwell Building last fall.
鈥淲e thought we had until the end of the year to get space for a new judge,鈥� Fergus said.
Cecil Township District Judge Traci McDonald-Kemp was chosen by voters from both the Democratic and Republican parties in the primary election four months ago. In late June, she won state Senate approval as Gov. Tom Wolf鈥檚 nominee to fill the vacancy that has existed since the Legislature approved a seventh judgeship in 2018 as the fourth-class county approaches the larger third-class status.
McDonald-Kemp is scheduled to take the oath of office Aug. 30, and she will be presiding in a courtroom carved out of the law library that, until recent renovations, had been used by a rotation of senior judges.
Finding room for her chambers and staff, however, triggered other changes within the courthouse.
McDonald-Kemp鈥檚 office will not be adjacent to the basement Courtroom No. 7. It will be located on the second floor.
Court Administrator Patrick Grimm and his staff will be moving to what has been for decades the main district attorney鈥檚 office in the northwest corner of the building.
Plans call for District Attorney Gene Vittone and 15 employees to take up new quarters later this month across the street from the courthouse on the second floor of the Caldwell Building at 26 S. Main St.
鈥淚 have offices in four locations,鈥� Vittone said. In addition to the main DA鈥檚 office, there are offices elsewhere for county detectives, victims鈥� services, two assistants, intake workers and an assistant for specialty courts.
He hoped for a seamless transition with no lapse in computer tracking of the status of prosecutions.
First Assistant District Attorney Dennis Paluso said the DA鈥檚 office is 鈥渦nder 1,000 active cases for the first time in 20 years鈥� despite an increase in the county鈥檚 population.
The former Caldwell鈥檚 Department Store building, which has a rear loading dock, will also be used to store new voting machines the county expects to purchase and deploy before the 2020 presidential election.
County officials discussed a lease with George Sprowls, the Caldwell Building鈥檚 owner, but they decided it was more 鈥渆conomically feasible鈥� to buy than to rent for a period of time, Fergus said.
The purchase price discussed last year was $370,000.
鈥淲e had negotiated an agreement that fell through,鈥� Fergus said. 鈥淎t that point, we wanted to look at other options. We were lucky to get a building across from the courthouse.鈥�
Sprowls, in the meantime, had made improvements in the building he planned to lease, which accounted for the additional $30,000 above the purchase price proposed in the prior agreement.
No independent or third-party candidate filed for the seventh seat on the Washington County bench before the Aug. 1 deadline, so McDonald-Kemp鈥檚 name will be the only one on the Nov. 5 ballot for a full, 10-year term.