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JOHNSON COUNTY, KANSAS (June 21, 2013) — In a move to free up space for other uses in a crowded Johnson County Courthouse, an old vacant grocery store in Olathe has a new life as a Johnson County facility for law enforcement and criminal justice services.
The new building, located at 588 East Santa Fe Street, houses three county operations – the Tenth Judicial District’s Offices of Court Trustee and Court Services along with administration personnel and the Civil Division of the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office.
A ribbon-cutting celebration to mark completion of the project is scheduled at 10 a.m. Wednesday, June 26.
Johnson County purchased the former Dillon’s property with approximately five acres in mid-2011 for $2 million from General Fund reserves. The grocery store was constructed in 1977, expanded in 1998, and closed in 2008.
Renovations, totaling approximately $8.4 million, to convert, equip, and furnish the building into future county office space began in August 2011. El Dorado Inc., a Kansas City, Mo. architectural firm, designed the project. The Weitz Company of Lenexa was the construction manager.
The project was completed last month. That paved the way for relocation of the District Court Trustee’s Office and Sheriff’s Office administration personnel, both from the Courthouse in downtown Olathe, and the Court Services Office near 119th Street and Ridgeview Road.
Court Services Department
Working directly with the Tenth Judicial District Courts, the Court Services Department has a daily client population of approximately 3,500 served through its Adult, Juvenile, and Domestic Relations Services units.
Services include bond supervision, presentence investigations, and probation oversight, both adult and juvenile, for the criminal courts. The department also provides parenting mediation and custody evaluations for the civil courts and early intervention for youth with minor offense or truancy issues through Youth Court, Project SKIP, and other services.
Court Trustee’s Office
The District Court Trustee’s Office is responsible for enforcement of all Johnson County support orders along with any other court orders that are referred by another court.
Actively monitoring more than 22,000 active cases annually, the office collected and distributed more than $102 million in court-ordered support payments, a record, in 2012. That was more than $6.5 million from what was collected in 2011.
Sheriff’s Office
Administration staff of the Sheriff’s Office along with Court Security Division and Civil Division has relocated from the Courthouse to the new site. Sheriff Frank Denning also will have his office at 588 East Santa Fe.
Sustainability
This building joins a list of high performing County buildings, operating expenses projected well below industry standards, saving utility expenses for years to come. LEED Certification at the Basic or perhaps Silver level is anticipated by the United States Green Building Council. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance sustainable buildings. Johnson County currently has six LEED buildings, including one with a top Platinum rating and five Gold facilities.
Sustainability features include:
• The building uses 15 percent less energy than a standard office building of its size.
• The bathrooms and break room use 30 percent less water than a standard office building of its size.
• More than 92 percent of the walls, roof, and structure in the building were maintained in the project, diverting significant amounts of waste from landfills.
• More than 95 percent of construction waste was diverted from landfills by recycling.
• More than 30 percent of new materials used contain recycled content.
• Wood products used came from certified sustainably managed forests.
• Adhesives, paints, carpet, and composite wood materials are low Volatile Organic Compounds, or VOCs.
• New rooftop skylights, or monitors, bring daylight into the middle of the open offices.
Courthouse Interim Project
This adaptive reuse project is part of the Courthouse Interim Project, which is now under way to renovate the fourth floor and first floor space being vacated by the District Court Trustee’s Office and Sheriff’s Office for future use by the District Attorney’s Office, District Courts, and other departments. The project also includes renovation of the sixth floor for additional courtrooms.
Project authorization has been set at almost $3.9 million for the Courthouse remodeling work. Architect for the Courthouse is Clark Enersen Partners with McCownGordon Construction as construction manager. Completion of the project is scheduled in early 2014.
The Johnson County Courthouse has been in a space crunch for years. Past studies have concluded that the facility is “inadequate and fails to meet even the current space requirements of the Johnson County Courts.”
The existing facility, with nine floors and 234,931 square feet of space, was built in four phases, starting in 1951 when the court system had three judges and ending in 1972 when the courts had expanded to eight judges.
The Courthouse now has 19 district courts, four magistrate courts, and three hearing officers along with other county departments, including the Law Library, Clerk of the District Court, and District Attorney’s Office.
In 2012, 562,645 people, which is the current estimated population of Johnson County, were screened entering the Courthouse.
# # # About Johnson County
Nestled in the southwestern quadrant of the Kansas City Metropolitan Region, Johnson County, Kansas is a community of choice with a current population of more than 544,000, making it the most populated of the 105 counties in Kansas, but traditionally having the lowest mill levy in the state. For more information visit the county’s website at www.jocogov.org.
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