Whether its eye appeal is brutal or beautiful, the state”™s judicial system has let Orange County officials know its court system belongs in one building. Â You”™d be hard pressed to find someone in the system that didn”™t agree, particularly when they are doing the triangle shuffle between Newburgh, Middletown and Goshen.
Since Tropical Storms Irene and Lee pounded the 40-year-old building late summer, the water seeping through its neglected flat roof and drizzling through its 15-foot-high ceilings has rendered it uninhabitable, with signs of mold beginning to appear on the exterior of the building.
County Executive Ed Diana”™s plan to knock down the building and create a one-stop shop for county government ”“ bringing all county services under one roof in a new $140 million building originally presented at the Orange County Citizens Foundation nearly a year ago ”“ have been set aside as officials and engineers weigh the cost of putting its court system back together again and making the building habitable. The other choice is to knock it down and spend the nearly $138 million Diana and others say it will cost to build another one.
Currently, the executive branch is working out of the 911 Emergency Services Center, but the judicial system is in a hodge-podge of locations, much to the increasing irritation of judges, lawyers, support staff and clerks. “If a judge needs one of the ADAs (assistant district attorneys), his clerk can”™t call downstairs to the District Attorney”™s Office and have him come up to the courtroom,” said one court clerk, who declined to give a name, on his way to the 911 Center from Newburgh.  “Instead, they have to track them down ”“ our courts are backlogged as it is. Let the Legislature battle out what it wants to do with the rest of the services that were in the original section of the building, but please, put the courts back together again.”
