Place with many doors

The Craven County Judicial Complex off Clarks Road will have many doors, more than 800, but getting in won't be easy. For many, getting out will be even harder.

Most of those who have business there will go through the entrance to a 300-seat courtroom. "Everybody will come through this entrance in the daylight hours," said County Manager Harold Blizzard. "They will walk through metal detectors and screeners."The complex is being built on a 108-acre site about eight miles west of New Bern and is expected to open next spring. It will include a magistrate's court and a 300-bed jail with a central monitoring and service core. The service core is designed to allow supervision of as many as 600 inmates if additional cell blocks are needed.

Concrete, blocks and rebar meld into eight-inch impenetrable walls for four two-story cell blocks - three for men and one for women - with varied security levels.

"These walls are routed so solid that it would take you a couple of days with a chop saw to get out," said Joel Shellie, project foreman for DeVere's Construction Company Inc.

The contract for the $25.5 million complex was awarded to DeVere in September 2007 after the county negotiated the price down from DeVere's original $26.85 million low bid. With land included, the project costs around $30 million.

The construction company is based in Alpena, Mich., and has offices in Apex. It has built many jails. Shellie said that in 23 years, he has worked on several and watched the security technology evolve.

Shellie and his assistant, Tom Tolen, led a construction update tour for Blizzard, Sheriff Jerry Monette, and their key personnel on July 11. Shellie said the project was about a month and a half behind schedule.

He said two steel crews were brought in instead of one to bring it back on track by early August.

Although the project is well under way, it remains controversial. Some critics are opposed to having the complex in the rural neighborhood. Others are opposed to locating a District Court in the complex. They worry that it could be the beginning of a wholesale move of courthouse functions from downtown New Bern.

The Swiss Bear Downtown Development Corporation is among those concerned. It persuaded New Bern aldermen in December 2007 to fund a $6,500 economic impact analysis by Washington consultant Randall Gross.

The consultant's report said that moving courtrooms out of the city could mean a loss of at least $2 million a year downtown, depending on what was moved. The report said the study "does not purport to determine the need for a new jail or courthouse facilities" nor "determine the suitability of the Clarks site." It includes a notation that "the county has made absolutely no commitment to relocate full district court proceedings or other court activities from downtown New Bern."

Blizzard, the county manager, said in December 2007 that "we have no intention of moving the courthouse out there." He reiterated that statement this month.

Sheriff Jerry Monette says it makes sense to have a District Court room in the new complex.

The courtroom will be used for preliminary appearances of poople charged in criminal cases and will prevent the need, cost, and danger of taking them downtown to the main court facilities, Monette said.

He said that failing to consider the economic effect was the only flaw he sees in the overall planning, but he questioned the loss estimates for downtown. "I can't figure out where it is going to be lost," Monette said. "Where are they going to spend it out here? And this will free up parking and make it a little nicer for other folks to be downtown."

"We looked at sites in the corporate limits, on Oaks Road, at Reedy Creek," he said. "They were perfect for us but it wasn't meant to be."

Perhaps the most persistent opponent of the new judicial complex has been Charlie Simmons. He owns a piece of property on Clarks Road adjacent to the county's land at the entranceway to the complex and spearheads community opposition.

He has gathered signatures on a petition against its location, speaks against the project at almost every meeting of the Craven County commissioners, and recently spoke to New Bern aldermen seeking their help to halt progress on the jail.

Monette said his concerns are exaggerated at best and mostly unfounded.

"The present jail has been there since 1982," Monette said. "There are homes, churches, day-care, businesses, and government offices right outside our back door and it has been a good neighbor to them.

"I've been sheriff for 14 years and, in that time, we have had two escapes and neither one stayed in the area," he said. "There hasn't been a murder or serious crime near the jail and two-thirds of the people in jail have not been convicted of any violent crime. There is information being used to oppose this that isn't true."

"This jail is being built with the highest security there is," said Monette. "We've toured many facilities and we've learned and will use what we've learned."

Blizzard said the county has offered to buy Simmons' land to enhance the entranceway to the new complex but he does not want to sell.

A group of western Craven county residents gathered last September to express concerns about the complex location because of its potential threat to their rural lifestyle and safety.

Craven County Commissioners' Chairman Jason Jones championed their concerns in his top vote-getting campaign for his post and, with Commissioner Theron McCabe, has continued to vote against its funding.

Jones said then that "most of the commissioners feel they have gone too far to say this is the wrong location. I don't agree with the vote but have to respect the decision that has been made. The commissioners have been trying to get a jail built for a number of years."

Blizzard said: "We attempted to find an area close by but relatively unpopulated. There are only eight residences within a mile of the site on that side of U.S. 70. You can't please everybody. This was the best we could do."

Monette said the new facility "belongs to the people. Once they use it, they will realize it is going to be a great thing for Craven County."

Sue Book can be reached at (252) 635-5666 or sbook@freedomenc.com.