(WHITE TWP., November 14, 2007) – Renovations to Warren County’s historic Courthouse will start two years earlier than previously expected, leading the county Freeholder Board to hold a recent discussion with court officials to plan the project.

Freeholder Director Everett A. Chamberlain, Freeholder Richard D. Gardner and other county officials met with Superior Court Assignment Judge Yolanda Ciccone and Trial Court Administrator Eugene Farkas of NJ Superior Court Vicinage 13, which includes Warren, Somerset and Hunterdon counties.

“We want to work with you,” Judge Ciccone said, pledging the court system’s support to make the renovations a reality.

Chamberlain explained that renovations to the former Warden’s House, next to the old jail behind the Courthouse, should be done by February. Moreover, the Warren County Department of Education will soon move out of the nearby Barry House to a new location at the Warren County Technical School campus in Franklin Township. The Warren County Prosecutor’s Office will vacate its wing in the Courthouse and instead use the Barry House and Warden’s House, and the Freeholders can begin renovations on that section of the Courthouse.

Chamberlain said the first floor space now used by the Prosecutor’s Office would become a criminal courtroom with a circulation plan that would keep defendants separated from the general public. “We can solve some of our concerns with safety,” he noted.

The second floor of that wing now houses the Jury Assembly Room and Jury Management offices, which would be relocated to temporary space so that the entire wing could be renovated.

Courthouse renovations are intended to create more space for court-related needs and to upgrade building systems including the electric and the heating, ventilation and air conditioning. The original Courthouse was dedicated in 1826, and expanded nearly 50 years ago.

The Freeholder Board continues to work on plans to construct a new building near the county’s Wayne Dumont, Jr. Administration Building in White Township, which will house the county Election Board, Human Services Department, County Library headquarters and Public Health Nursing Agency. This in turn will free up more space in the Courthouse and Courthouse Annex, as well as the Cummins Building across the street from the Courthouse and the PHNA building in Washington Borough.

The Freeholders expect to break ground on that project in 2008.