[StBernard] After three year renovation, St. Bernard Courthouse to reopen on Monday

[Westley Annis]

After three year renovation, St. Bernard Courthouse to reopen on Monday
wwltv.com

Posted on March 14, 2013 at 6:21 PM

Updated today at 6:21 PM

Maya Rodriguez / Eyewitness News

Email: mrodriguez at wwltv.com | Twitter: @mrodriguezwwl

CHALMETTE, La.-- It's moving day at the St. Bernard Courthouse, as the 34th
Judicial Court gets ready for a return to its old home.

As one of the parish's iconic structures, the St. Bernard courthouse will
finally reopen Monday. It comes seven years after Hurricane Katrina swamped
it with water and three years after a costly renovation began on it.

"I won't believe it until I'm actually in it," said St. Bernard Judge
Jacques Sanborn. "It's been three years. It was supposed to be a one year
project."

That's not how it turned out, though. The Art Deco courthouse, built in
1939, went through quite a lot in the past seven years.

The courthouse is elevated about four feet. Despite that, during Hurricane
Katrina about four feet of water managed to get into the building. A month
after the storm, everyone who worked in the courthouse came back to work
there, but by 2010, they had to move back out again, because mold had spread
throughout the building.

The renovations took far longer than expected. In the meantime, court was
held at a shopping center, with cramped courtrooms separated from one
another by cafes and shops.

"We had to find some place to operate," Judge Sanborn said. "And it hasn't
been a real pleasant experience."

Newly-elected Clerk of Court Randy Nunez said he is looking forward to being
back in the building where he once practiced law-- and from where he will
now oversee the continued digitizing of St. Bernard records.

"Right now, we're so displaced we're spread out among three or four
buildings within about a two block span of each other," he said.

Nunez sees the courthouse's reopening as a symbol of St. Bernard's
resiliency.

"I think once that happens it will be another step in the complete recovery
from the devastation we experienced in Katrina," Nunez said. "I think this
is a good step, a big step."

The majority of the renovations to the courthouse, which cost nearly $14
million, were paid for mostly by FEMA because it involved Hurricane
Katrina-related damage.