“The court we’re building is going to be state-of-the-art. It’s also going to have our JFS (Job and Family Services) and our workforce components,” he said. “As we know right now, there’s no other court like it in the United States. We’re pretty excited.”
First announced in 2018, the project was initially set back due to difficulty obtaining a suitable building site. The coronavirus pandemic then forced the county to make a nearly $30 million budget adjustment, putting construction further behind, according to the county.
County commissioners approved the lowest of four construction bids, a $6,211,000 proposal submitted by Brumbaugh Construction. A groundbreaking is scheduled at 11 a.m. on Aug. 27, according to the county.
The new 18,000-square-foot courthouse will go up on the north side of East Main Street just across Macgregor Drive from the new library. Montgomery County commissioners accepted the 3.3 acres of land from the Trotwood Community Improvement Corporation last December.
The Western Division court serves Brookville, Clay Twp. Farmersville, Jackson Twp., Jefferson Twp., New Lebanon, Perry Twp., Phillipsburg, Trotwood and Verona. The Eastern Division court in Huber Heights serves that community along with Riverside.
County officials had studied the project for years and originally targeted a 2020 completion, but due to the delays, a lease was extended at the court’s current location in New Lebanon. The new building is expected to be completed in the fall of 2022, Colbert said.
A planning study showed about 55% of the Western Division cases involved Trotwood citizens. A lack of public transportation to New Lebanon was also major factor in deciding to locate the court in Trotwood, commissioners said during the evaluation stage.
The more centralized Trotwood location will allow police departments and prosecutors, as well as citizens called before the court and their public defenders, to save time and money, said Montgomery County Commissioner Debbie Lieberman.
“This is something that the all the chiefs and departments have agreed on,” she said. “It’s also better for the people that have to appear in court, because now they don’t have to go all the way up to New Lebanon.”
The courthouse construction project will join a new Goodwill Easter Seals Miami Valley’s West Campus Community Services Center. Between both projects is the new Dayton Metro Library Trotwood branch.
Colbert said the additional Montgomery County Workforce Development programs and Montgomery County Job and Family Services offerings at the new site will “connect with people where they’re at.”
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