News

COMMISSIONERS OK $150 MILLION COURTHOUSE-JAIL EXPANSION

County Commission Vice chair Michael Edney and Commissioner Bill Lapsley discuss the Judicial Center Addition and Renovation project on Wednesday.

By Amy McCraw, Published: May 15, 2024

Henderson County’s Board of Commissioners voted Wednesday to begin making improvements to the county’s courthouse and jail, a project that will be the county’s largest ever capital improvement.

The board voted 3-2 in favor of the Judicial Center Addition and Renovation project after Commission Chair Rebecca McCall made a motion to approve a design that will include four floors. The motion made during the county commission meeting left open the option to leave the fourth floor incomplete. Vice Chair Michael Edney and Commissioner Bill Lapsley joined McCall in voting yes. Commissioners David Hill and Daniel Andreotta voted no.
The JCAR project is expected to cost $154.2 million if the fourth floor is left “shelled out” and not complete. McCall said the board wants to complete the fourth floor if possible. That option would cost $158.3 million.
The combined detention center-courthouse expansion will cost more than double the current capital project record-holder — the $60 million Hendersonville High School new construction-renovation.
McCall said in an interview after the vote that taking on the costly expansion was unavoidable.
“It’s something we have to do. We know our county is growing. We have outgrown our existing facility,” she said. “The longer we wait, the more it will cost us.”
Hill and Andreotta said they voted against the project because its cost was too high given the county’s current tax rate.
With other significant projects needed in the county, Hill said he feared the county would be hamstrung without a tax increase.
“What happens when we need a new school?” Andreotta asked.
Although he voted in favor of McCall’s motion, Edney said he continues to believe a fifth floor is needed given the expected demands on the courthouse in the future
“Not doing a fifth floor is shortsighted,” he said.
Edney said he supported McCall’s motion because some improvement at the courthouse was needed right away.
“At least it will stop the bleeding,” he said.
Lapsley said he wanted to see the fourth floor completed. He also took stock of the county beginning its largest ever capital improvement project. Lapsley called it a “monumental accomplishment to do without a tax increase.”
Commissioners discussed the possibility of asking the state to assist in funding the project because several state agencies including the district attorney’s office and probation office are housed in the courthouse.

Successful vote reverses last week's failed votes

Two motions for moving forward on the renovation project — one in favor of the $158 million option, the other at cost of $167 million — failed in 3-2 votes last week.
The pair of failed votes on May 6 came after architects, project managers and the county staff presented new options for lowering the cost of the JCAR project, which originally came in at a jarring $215 million.
McCall had appointed Lapsley and Edney as the County Commission’s liaisons “to work with staff and our architectural team and our contractors to go and find options to bring savings to the taxpayer and as much as possible meet the needs of the program that we studied for all of the users of these buildings and weigh those options,” Christopher Todd, the county’s point man on the project, reminded commissioners.
The deepest cost cut was the $158.3 option 2, which trimmed the courthouse tower from five to four stories and substantially scaled back renovation of the existing Grove Street Courthouse, which was built in 1995.