AUGUSTA — The long-sought dream of a new Kennebec County courthouse is getting much closer to reality. When it rises, the hillside building could restructure views throughout the city center.
The state inked a purchase-and-sales agreement to acquire the Crisis & Counseling Centers site at 32 Winthrop St. The purchase price for the courthouse site is $1.65 million.
Additional Photos
“It’s finally coming together,” said state Court Administrator James T. Glessner. “It’s a good time to issue bonds; the rates are good. It’s been approved by the Legislature and we’re ready to go.”
The property will be vacated Sept. 9 or soon thereafter, permitting the court system to go through the Maine Governmental Facilities Authority to issue $7.5 million in bonds in October, according to Glessner.
The $7.5 million would pay for the land and for architectural design work, he said.
If all goes as planned, construction on the new courthouse could start next year.
The project has been anticipated for a long time.
In October 2009, Maine Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Leigh Saufley projected a $55 million new building to include consolidated superior and district courts and offices, and temporary space for courts and personnel while construction is under way.
However, it’s taken longer than expected to secure the property.
That hurdle was largely overcome Friday, when Crisis & Counseling Centers announced a Sept. 12 start date at its new headquarters at 10 Caldwell Road. The site is on the east side of Augusta in a building that formerly housed MaineGeneral Medical Center’s Workplace Health Center.
The completed courthouse is to be designed to combine Kennebec County Superior Court and Augusta District Court with a connector to the existing historic structure, along with Family Court and administrative office functions now housed in leased space just off Stone Street. Technology specialists currently based out of the Maine Judicial Center, at 65 Stone St., will also be brought into the new facility.
“We’ll have more courtrooms and much better service and much safer than we are now,” Glessner said.
The deal to acquire the site is now in the “due diligence” phase, in which the property is being surveyed and test borings being taken.
Glessner anticipates a landmark building visible to travelers on Memorial Bridge.
The building will take into account the steep slope of Winthrop Street as it runs between State Street and Commercial Street.
“The building is going to be fabulous,” Glessner said. “That slant is going to be so beneficial.”
Crisis & Counseling, one of the region’s largest substance-abuse and mental-health aid agencies, has been seeking a new home for more than a year and a half in an effort to accommodate the courts and improve its own services.
“We have tried to find a mutually beneficial situation for many months,” Lynn Duby, the agency’s chief executive director, said in a prepared statement. “We looked at every available area property that came close to meeting our needs. We are very pleased with the new building and are excited about the move. In many ways this building is better suited to our needs.”
In her office Friday morning, Duby said she likes the lease-purchase agreement in place with MaineGeneral. Workplace Health relocated to 15 Enterprise Drive in the Central Maine Commerce Center.
“Because of (an earlier, failed deal to buy the former Kennebec Journal building), I was nervous about having a commitment to buy,” she said. “If the bond issue doesn’t go through, we’ll be moving back.”
For Duby to accept the Caldwell Road site for Crisis & Counseling, the building had to have parking for more than 90 staff, plus clients; and have access to the Kennebec Explorer public bus line.
Duby said Crisis & Counseling personnel have prepared a schedule in anticipation of the move in order to ensure uninterrupted access to crisis services. Those services are reachable by calling a statewide crisis line: 1-(888) 568-1112; or, locally, 621-2552.
The agency receives 1,200 to 1,500 calls per month, she said.
The agency’s outpatient services, including substance abuse, mental health and medication management, will be closed Sept. 8 and 9, resuming at the new site Sept. 12.
“We’re going to have signs here directing people where there need to go,” she said, adding that there will be a banner outside the old building, as well.
The Crisis & Counseling website, www.crisisandcounseling.org, shows the agency runs clinical programs at eight locations and provides 24-hour mobile crisis response in Kennebec and Somerset counties.
It also provides outpatient medication management, substance abuse and mental health treatment to more than 1,000 individuals each year; integrated medical and behavioral health care in two county jails; and family support services statewide.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
badams@centralmaine.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.
