The Hood River County courthouse, a marvel when it was built in 1954, has since fallen to the bottom rung of Oregon’s most decrepit judicial buildings.
A 2008 state study ranked the courthouse 46th out of 48 facilities in Oregon. Since then, the other two laggard court buildings, in Jefferson and Union counties, have been repaired or replaced.
But Hood River’s courthouse is still waiting — at dead last by some measures.
A push has begun at the county and state level to replace the building, drawing from various concerns, from safety and security to failing utilities, seismic stability and cramped conditions for staff.
“Our courthouse is just a disaster … it’s just terribly unsafe,” Hood River County Commissioner Karen Joplin said. “Hood River will need to make a decision in the future,” as to replacing the structure.
Joplin has recently served on a judicial task force that was charged with gauging the needs of courts around the state.
In 2015, the county contracted a firm, DLR Group, to do a space and needs assessment, a study that shed further light on problems the State Street monolith faces.
“The good thing through this is we somewhat determined it would be just as cost effective to tear down (the building) than replace it,” Joplin said.
Mikel Diwan, county public works director, explained the study was “very preliminarily, so it was more quantitative rather than schematic.” It focused on the big picture hurdles and the paths available.
“Two options that were looked at were combining all county departments into one facility and also keeping only the departments or functions that are currently there,” Diwan said, while another option would be moving to an alternative site.
Joplin said the county weighed options for where the successor would go — such as the Hood River waterfront or the county yard off 18th Street — but they deemed the existing spot most appropriate for public access.
Origins, conditions today
The courthouse, at 309 State St., was dedicated with an opening ceremony on July 9, 1954.
About 1,000 people gathered for the festivities, according to a front page story in the Hood River News. The facility cost “one third a million dollars,” the News reported.
Earlier, county government was housed in the Butler Bank Building on Oak Street. Most county administrative offices are now located in the nearby Business Administration Building at 601 State Street.
Jail cells were housed in the new courthouse, until the role moved to Northern Oregon Regional Correctional Facility in The Dalles, which currently houses inmates from four Gorge counties.
Despite some piecemeal fix-ups, such as a new wing in the 1980s, the courthouse has been left mostly unchanged since its heyday.
The three-story, 30,000-square-foot building houses multiple departments: the circuit court (with two main courtrooms upstairs), District Attorney, Sheriff’s Office, Community Corrections, Juvenile Department, and the Commission on Children and Families. About 50-60 personnel (state and county) work there.
Angie Curtis, county trial court administrator, stepped into her post in May aware of the needs the courthouse faces, and its ranking statewide.
“We certainly appreciate the space we use, but our needs have changed in the decades since (the courthouse was built),” Curtis said. “The design of the building creates some real challenges.”
Most problematic: security issues that don’t align with modern practices like the main shared hallway, and ADA access problems, Curtis explained.
Via the hallway entrance, interaction between the public, jurors, witnesses, victims, and defendants is an “often occurrence for which there is minimal opportunity for sufficient safety and security measures,” according to a 2014 county funding request to the state.
Funding future
Construction of a new courthouse is likely years away, but funding for the replacement project has come into sharper focus this year.
This fall, Oregon Chief Justice Thomas Balmer announced that Hood River’s courthouse replacement project will be included in larger package of budget recommendations headed to Oregon Gov. Kate Brown for the next legislative biennium.
A new courthouse would cost roughly $35-40 million, with about $4.4 million put up by the state as a match, via the Oregon Courthouse Capital Construction Improvement Fund, which was born out of a 2013 senate bill.
The county would consider passing a capital bond, along with other financing options to make up the sum.
Joplin anticipated that if the funding award isn’t bumped to a future session, the county could be ready to put the project out to bid by 2019. That would mean, by rough estimate, a new courthouse by 2021.
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