Justice presents $5 million for Monroe County Courthouse project

Sep. 2—UNION — After almost four years without a functional courtroom, the Monroe County Courthouse is on its way to a major renovation, thanks to $5 million from the state.

Gov. Jim Justice visited Union Thursday morning to present a symbolic check to the Monroe County Commissioners for the renovations, which are already under way and should be finished in about a year.

"When Commissioner Melvin Young came to my office in October of last year, I promised him that I would do everything in my power to make this become a reality," Justice said "It took a lot of hard work by a lot of great West Virginians that all pulled the rope together. So today is a really special day for Monroe County and a day that I'll never forget."

Justice said a lot of people worked hard to make this happen, but Monroe County was not forgotten.

"This building was built in 1881," he said of the historic courthouse. "Monroe County is on the other end of the earth from Charleston... But I am not going to forget..."

Justice said court has been held in the basement of the Union Fire Department.

"Just because you had something happen, you dug in," he said, and "a lot of people put in a lot of licks ... "

"It has been a challenge to all of us from the Commission side," Young said. "But the Governor did exactly what he said he was going to do."

Young said the story started in 2018 when it was discovered water had been seeping into the top of the building for years because of undetected guttering problems, cracking masonry and causing other damage and deterioration in the building.

A company was called in to assess the situation and mold was found in many parts of the building, including the courtroom, judge's chambers, the assessor's office and in the basement.

At that point, the courtroom was forced to close because it was a safety hazard, and the process started to find a solution since the small, rural county did not have the funds based on renovations estimates.

The county used as much funding as it had plus courthouse improvement funds (about $400,000) to remove the mold and do some renovations to the judge's and assessor's offices but completing the courtroom and other work is a major project requiring more funding. Another issue that must be addressed is bringing the courthouse into ADA (American Disabilities Act) compliance.

The design work has the required blessing of the state Historic Preservation Office.

Young, a businessman, said he learned in the process of working to obtain the needed money that the government may work slower, but it works, and the county simply did not have the money to repair the courthouse.

"We could not borrow the money to put our kids in debt..." he said, saying it was a matter of helping a neighbor that needed help, thanking legislators and the Governor's office for all their assistance, as well as members of the state Supreme Court of Appeals.

Chief Justice John A. Hutchison was in Union for the event.

"We are so proud of what you have accomplished here," he said, detailing how he got involved by being asked by the Speaker of the House (Roger Hanshaw) in a meeting at the beginning of this year's legislative session: "What are we going to do to fix the problem in Monroe County?"

Hutchison said the state court system does not have funds to mitigate problems at courthouses, "but we had to find a way to help them."

"We met with the right people, we got our greetings out to the folks in the Senate and the House and the Governor," he said. "And once we got the right people talking, it took on a life of its own, and it went through, and clearly the Governor was the driving force behind this, and he understood what needed to be done. He understood what the County Commission could do in Monroe County and what they couldn't do, and they couldn't come up with $5 million. and he figured out a way to get that done."

Hutchison, along with former Justice Evan Jenkins, visited the courthouse in January of this year and later started having regular Zoom meetings with all involved in the project.

Monroe County Commission President Kevin Galford thanked several people who were involved, including retired County Clerk Donnie Evans, who was always there to "put all of the paperwork together for us."

Others in attendance who helped included former state Sen. Kenny Mann, Sen. Stephen Baldwin, D-Greenbrier County, Del. Roy Cooper, R-Summers County, Circuit Court Judge Robert A. Irons, Matt Harvey, former Monroe County resident and District Attorney for Jefferson County, Monroe County Commissioner Kevin Mann, Bill Shiflet, President of the Greenbrier County Economic Development Corporation, and project architect Todd Boggess.

Both Justice and Hutchison said they have roots in Monroe County.

The Governor said he hunted rabbits and quail in the county in the 1970s when he was a "skinny, brown-haired kid" and got to know landowners who allowed him to hunt in their land.

In 1978 he bought a farm in Gap Mills and turned it into the "largest cash grain farm east of the Mississippi" on 78,000 acres.

"It all started right here," he said of Monroe County. "My roots remain right here."

"Monroe County is very important to me," Hutchison said, pointing to family ties going back into the 1800s.

"I graduated from law school in 1980..." he said. "I tried my first case in the Monroe County Courthouse ... This place has lot of fond memories and I have a lot of history here."

— Contact Charles Boothe at cboothe@bdtonline.com

Contact Charles Boothe at cboothe@bdtonline.com