The Marshall County Council members considered an additional appropriation for a court administrator Monday morning for the county’s newest court as it prepares to open July 1.
Marshall County Superior Court 3 will be located in the Marshall County Courthouse in the space where Marshall County Community Corrections used to occupy.
The Marshall County Council funded the court for only half of the year so additional appropriation requests, or requests to spend funds in that budget, will come before the council for consideration.
Prior to a decision on the most request advertisement, the council members heard from Superior Court 2 Judge Dean Colvin on the new court’s progress.
“The selection process for the judge is moving forward,” stated Judge Colvin. “I understand the interviews of the three candidates who have applied for the position have already been interviewed. We’re hoping that by June 1 that the governor will make his announcement as to who that appointee will be.”
In the meantime, Judge Colvin said Circuit Court Judge Curtis Palmer has advertised for the positions of court reporter, court bailiff and court administrator.
Judge Colvin continued, “It would be our hope – I say our hope – the judge’s hope that we could be able to hire those individuals with the assistance of whoever the appointee is to make their selection in order that they might begin their employment with court somewhere around June 15 so we can pre-train them so that they’re ready to begin working on July 1st when the court officially opens.”
More additional appropriations will be coming before the county council for funds to pay the employees once they are hired.
Otherwise, Judge Colvin indicated that all of the necessary electronic equipment is ready to be utilized and furniture has been ordered to be delivered sometime in June.
Judge Colvin commented that the additional court is expected to help get cases through the judicial system a little quicker.
“But, it is not the end solution, I want to repeat that, it is not the end solution to the overcrowding in the county jail. If you are here to think that that court will somehow immediately extinguish that problem, that should not be your line of thought. We can’t control how many people come in the system and how they come into the system. We can only work with the tools that we have and for the last 25 years we have worked with a tool shed that has been extremely short in terms of judicial resources.”
The Marshall County Council voted unanimously to approve an additional appropriation of $20,875.40 for the court administrator. If a person is hired into the position prior to June 15, more money may be requested to fulfill salary obligations through the rest of 2021.
