Just a month after the elementary school officially ceased operations, Franklin Academy came up in a supervisors meeting as a possible solution to the county’s courtroom space issues.
Sixteenth District Circuit Court Judge Jim Kitchens spoke to supervisors during a Monday meeting about the space issues courts are currently facing and floated Franklin as a potential consideration.
Board President Trip Hairston said using Franklin for additional court space has been a topic of discussion in the past, but presently, the board hasn’t explored that option, he said.
“Over the years … they have discussed some use of Franklin for that, and that’s the only reason that came up,” Hairston said. “I don’t know what a viable option that is, or even something that was considered.”
Circuit court convenes in Lowndes County for four sessions each year that range from three to four weeks long, while chancery court is held throughout the year. That means circuit court judges are sometimes up against each other and chancery court for space in the county courthouse.
“(Circuit court has) essentially two courtrooms that we can utilize, so what that means is, all three of us (circuit court judges) can’t be here at the same time, so we have to divide up our time to take care of that,” Kitchens told supervisors. “And when we’re doing that, we’re having to compete with chancery (court). … It kind of interrupts their ability to have court hearings and stuff here too, so we’re having to kind of deal with that.”
The lack of space also eats into drug court, which Kitchens schedules for every other Tuesday evening.
“Sometimes, I’ve had to reschedule it or may not be able to do it on a Tuesday night because we still have term court going,” he said. “So I didn’t have a place to do that. I can’t easily put 100 folks anywhere other than that courtroom upstairs.”
Regardless of where it is, Kitchens said more courtroom space will be necessary for the system to work “better than it is.”
“Courtrooms are a waste of time until you need them, and I know that when they’re sitting empty, you’re thinking, ‘Oh gosh, what are we doing with all this space?’” Kitchens told supervisors during the meeting. “But when we don’t have them, it’s a real headache, and trying to balance everything to get the appropriate amount of courtroom time is becoming more and more of a problem.”
Hairston noted Franklin’s historical designation could make it difficult to renovate the building to meet the court’s purpose.
Robert Smith, president of the Columbus Municipal School District Board of Trustees, said any considerations for Franklin’s future will require input from the community.
“Before we make any decision, we would like to get input from the community,” he told The Dispatch on Monday afternoon.
Storm shelters
Supervisors on Monday also voted to move forward with ordering four storm shelters that will be placed at the Crawford, Plum Grove and Artesia community centers, though how much they will cost is up in the air.
The county was awarded $93,322.80 in grant funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Hazard Mitigation Assistance program. That funding is supposed to cover 90% of the project’s cost, but the lowest bid for the project came in at $132,620, County Engineer Zach Foster said.
“Bids came in a little higher than the original budget was set up for, and so the city has requested FEMA to increase that grant amount,” Foster told supervisors. “But if you go ahead and move forward with the project now, it’s important to know that the county’s match if they don’t increase their grant amount, would be $43,297.”
District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks moved to proceed with the match and lower it later if FEMA allows the increase, noting this project has been in the works at least six years. The vote passed unanimously.
Hairston agreed with Brooks, telling The Dispatch after the meeting he remembers hearing the same discussions about the storm shelters in 2019 when he was planning to run for his seat.
“Way back when, there was a program out there that would help counties place shelters in community areas for community use,” Hairston told The Dispatch after the meeting. “That program went away, and so the expense and the requirements of those shelters were something that we had to weigh in and out over the years. And always we hoped that the federal program would come back and lo and behold, it did.”
Emergency Management Agency Director Cindy Lawrence told The Dispatch the shelters will be 15-by-16-foot concrete structures.
Foster said it will take 12 to 15 weeks for the shelters to be manufactured after they are ordered, so they likely won’t arrive until September or October, he said.
Austin resigns
The county is searching for a new volunteer fire coordinator after Neal Austin resigned Monday.
“I have taken the position to manage the fire station out here on (Charleigh D. Ford Jr. Drive). It’s going to be a fully paid department that will be servicing the industrial park,” Austin told The Dispatch. “… I think we’re going to change a lot of response capability out here.”
Hairston said Austin will be missed.
“Neal was a very well liked and, I think, effective fire coordinator,” Hairston said. “One of the reasons he was so effective was he responded to every fire. He did a really good job in the county responding to fires. The firemen have a lot of respect for Neal.”
Austin called the eight years he’s served in the position “very rewarding.”
“We got to upgrade a lot of services,” he said. “We have improved a lot of services, and I’m excited for what the future holds.”
Hairston said the search for a new coordinator is already underway, with the county looking first to internal candidates.
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
