photo by: Nick Krug

The Division IV courtroom is among those at the Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center that is up for a remodel.

Douglas County District Court Administrator Linda Koester-Vogelsang will add juggler to her job description for the next few years.

A $750,000 phased remodeling of the six courtrooms of the Douglas County District Court, Pro Tem Court and jury assembly room is slated to start later this year. The work on the rooms in the Judicial and Law Enforcement Center, 111 E. 11th St., will be scheduled so that only one courtroom is closed for remodeling at a time.

“Our dockets are too full to do more than one courtroom at a time,” Koester-Vogelsang said. “It needs to be done. We want this to be the best for the people of Douglas County.”

Douglas County Administrator Craig Weinaug said the remodeling would probably extend into 2018. It is being paid for by annual capital project money that the District Court was able to able to save over the years, he said.

The work will actually start with the remodeling of the jury assembly room, Koester-Vogelsang said. That is a basement room in which 50 to 100 prospective jurors meet early in the day to receive orientation from a judge.

Scheduling will test Koester-Vogelsang’s juggling skills. There are alternative onsite locations to the jury assembly room that can be used for those days with smaller jury selection pools, but she is planning to move orientation meetings to the Douglas County Public Works headquarters or a building in the Douglas County Fairgrounds on days with larger numbers, she said.

The County Commission meeting room on the second-floor of the old Douglas County Courthouse, originally designed as a courtroom and used for years for that purpose, will be pressed back into that role once work starts on the District Court’s courtrooms, Koester-Vogelsang said. It will not, however, be used for jury trials.

That limited use will require her to constantly monitor the docket schedule to find the best and most appropriate room for trials, a task complicated because jury trials can be called off or rescheduled with little notice, Koester-Vogelsang said.

Many of the courtrooms haven’t undergone any improvements since the Judicial and Law Enforcement Center opened in the 1970s, Koester-Vogelsang said.

“People seemed to have been smaller 40 years ago,” she said. “Police officers with their equipment belts can’t sit in our seats. We need larger seating to accommodate them. We’ll work with an architect to make sure everything is done right.”

Improvements to all rooms will include carpet replacement, new paint and “looping.” That last process is the installation of a system of wires in the floor that transmit clear signals to hearing aids.

Ceilings will be replaced in all courtrooms, and a number are slated to get new furniture and ADA-compliant jury boxes, Koester-Vogelsang said. Audio systems are to be installed that will allow court recorders, but not the jury, to hear conferences at the bench, and the Douglas County Sustainability Department will help with the selection of energy-efficient lighting, she said.