Last month, Circuit Judge John Miller was picking a jury for a criminal case with 100 potential jurors crammed into a courtroom at the aging Santa Rosa County Courthouse.
The noise coming from the air conditioner was so loud that the potential jurors in the back two rows could not hear anything and had to be disqualified.
Miller has countless stories like that to illustrate how outdated and ineffective the 87-year-old building is in meeting the judicial needs of the county.
County leadership on Monday afternoon took local media on a tour of the aging courthouse in advance of a vote next month that would allow the county to build a new judicial center to replace it.
“I’m not complaining because I signed up for the job and I sort of knew what I was getting into,” Miller said. “But the jurors and the other people who come to the courthouse for business didn’t sign up. They were summoned or they’re here on professional business and I think that’s what bothers me the most.”
Next month, voters in Santa Rosa County will go to the polls to decide if they will approve a temporary sales tax increase to fund the construction of a new judicial center to replacing the aging courthouse.
Voters will also decide which of three locations is the best place to build the new facility. The possible sites are in downtown Milton behind the existing courthouse, in East Milton on land that would be donated to the county and the Coldwell Banker site on U.S. Highway 90 near Avalon Boulevard.
The courthouse was built in 1927, expanded in 1959 and had a modular addition installed about seven years ago. The building was not designed for the modern needs.
The courthouse’s IT network is housed in an active janitor’s closet and the heating and air conditioning are connected, which causes numerous issues.
And while modern courtrooms have different hallways to separate the judges, in the Santa Rosa county facility, the general public and criminals walk the same hallways.
“The courthouse is old, it’s tired and it needs to rest,” said Don Spencer, clerk of court
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Aging courthouse has multiple issues, said county officials