Warren County relocating its Adult Recovery Court to the former health department facility following a unanimous vote by the county commission.
Warren County Finance Director Justin Cotten said the transition directly resolves compliance issues and accessibility limitations that impacted the previous multi-use setup. He said shift makes sense.
“It’ll give them more room,” Cotten said. “It’ll save them from having to pay rent to the chamber, which will allow more funding to be used on actual grant operations. It’s mainly a space issue. They run four grants through there so there’s a significant amount of traffic that runs through there and they need some more space.”
Cotten said the setup should be simple with limited changes needed. The legal program focuses on alternative sentencing requirements to manage local public safety resources.
“The basement is partially cut up because there’s an old cistern or something underneath that building because it’s extremely old,” Cotten said. “But in the new location they’re moving to was the former health department for Warren County, so it is fully compliant with all the regulations. So all they’ll have to do is move their desks and stuff over and it should give them a significant amount more space and they will no longer have to rely on availability of the chamber’s large room upstairs for their bigger classes. They’ll be using the lobby of the old health department I believe for that purpose.”
Cotten said separate municipal budgets will absorb any future physical modifications if they become necessary.
“The funds that were reallocated within the grant are actually not being used for site modifications,” Cotten said. “They’re being used to transfer infrastructure like their phone system and to allow them to buy new furniture and other fixtures that will go into the building because I think what they’re using now is a cubicle setup that may not transfer wholesale into the new location. I believe any building modifications will probably be handled out of county resources if any are needed.”