[StBernard] St. Bernard courthouse repairs to displace 100 workers

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard courthouse repairs to displace 100 workers
By Chris Kirkham, The Times-Picayune 
March 28, 2010, 8:30AM

The gavel has fallen in the majestic courthouse on St. Bernard Highway since
1939, but in less than a month the entire staff of file clerks, judges,
assessor's staff and district attorneys will vacate the art deco building
for much more modest quarters inside a strip mall off West Judge Perez
Drive.

Nearly five years after Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters covered the first
floor of the courthouse in Chalmette and submerged many records in the
clerk's office, the parish is preparing for a monumental move that will put
nearly 100 staff members in a series of six vacant buildings in the Village
Square shopping center. Repairs to the 70-year-old courthouse were coming
anyway, but contractors discovered elevated levels of mold in the building
last year that prompted parish government and FEMA officials to decide that
the building should be emptied for a thorough renovation.

It has taken since last fall for parish and FEMA officials to find a
suitable temporary location for the courthouse. They looked at several
vacant commercial buildings across Chalmette, including the old Schwegmann's
shopping center on West Judge Perez Drive, but there were concerns about the
amount of space and the structural integrity of some of the options.

"It's been a long process; much longer than we hoped for," Parish President
Craig Taffaro said. "But as difficult of a project as it's been, it's been
refreshing to really see the agencies work together and accomplish this."

The judge and the tattoo parlor


Taffaro said the move will take place during the weekend of April 16-18,
meaning all the records and personal belongings will need to be packed up
beforehand. Although he said "the goal is to disrupt things as little as
possible," Taffaro said that undoubtedly judges may have to adjust their
schedules and continue some cases during the days before and after the move.

The court setup in the Village Square shopping center will be
unconventional, to say the least, especially for a staff that has never
worked outside the current building. 

Judge Robert Buckley, for example, will have his chambers below a tattoo
parlor. The main courtroom will be in the building next door, and Buckley
and court workers will enter through a hole contractors carved in the wall
between the two buildings.

A red brick building nearby but not connected to the strip will be split in
half, housing the chambers for Judge Perry Nicosia and the entire assessor's
office, which normally has its own wing of the courthouse. None of the
buildings are owned by people from St. Bernard.

So many files, so little room

Perhaps the biggest headache is for the clerk of court's office, which must
move reams of paper records and computer terminals to a three-story
building. Because of the sheer amount of paperwork, the files will be kept
on the first floor and clerk's staff will be on the second floor. The third
floor will house servers for the computers; it's unlikely that heavy files
could be stored there.

Clerk of Court Lena Torres said she was unaware that the move would be
happening so soon, and was skeptical that all of the files in the courthouse
-- including mortgage and title records dating back to the 1800s, marriage
licenses and civil and criminal cases -- would all fit in the first floor of
the building.

"Our records have been all in one place since I've worked in the courthouse,
since 1940," Torres said. "If they don't move all the records, I don't know
how I can operate."

Taffaro said FEMA has agreed to pay to digitize many of the records that
have not already been scanned into the system. But Torres said that process
is nowhere near complete.

For the public, parking may actually be more plentiful than the street
parking at the current courthouse. There is a full parking lot at the strip
center that is often empty. Signs will direct the public to the various
offices.

Courthouse repairs could take a year

It's unclear exactly how long the temporary quarters will be needed. Initial
estimates are that the work could take up to a year, Taffaro said.

Once the staff is moved out, contractors will remediate the mold in the
building and then move forward with a complete overhaul of the courthouse's
electrical and plumbing systems. Since Katrina, there has been no hot
running water in the courthouse. There was no professional remediation after
the flood, only a cursory cleaning where some employees wiped down the walls
and floors.

So far FEMA has obligated $367,000 to the project, but the project costs
will rise dramatically. The agency has agreed to pay for the move, the rent
at Village Square - nearly $300,000 for one year, according to lease records
- and the renovations. The final costs have not been tallied, Taffaro said.