City mulls court building options
Flood-damaged building requires too many repairs

By Tom Purdom
Staff Writer

GRANTS — It appears the days of the municipal court building as a courthouse are limited.

The building, originally built as a Dairy King Restaurant in the muscle car era to capture Route 66 business, later bought by the city of Grants and eventually turned into the municipal court building, was damaged in a July 2004 flood when a river of water swept down Santa Fe Avenue. The heavy rains caused a partial collapse of the municipal court building ceiling. In September 2004, the plan was to fix the ceiling and then do some re-construction work to make the municipal court building better than it ever was in the first place.

Not too long ago the city got back construction estimates and it was an eye-opener, said John Rhoderick, assistant city engineer. "The building is repairable, but potentially, it will cost more to fix it up like we want it than what the building would be worth," Rhoderick said. "We'd have to update the electric, update the plumbing and make the facility ADA compliant and we might have ended up with a building that was ADA compliant, but not big enough to have a court."

After the floodwater subsided and the mud was scooped out of municipal court, the city brought in a portable trailer building to house municipal court offices and records until repairs were done to the original building.

Rhoderick said the city is trying to locate another building in which to house the municipal court.

In the meantime, something has to be done. "There have been some discussions with the county to have the municipal court in the same building as the county has its magistrate court," Rhoderick said. "We'll also looking at other options. Ideally, we'd like to use a building that we already own."

What may be one option is the current senior center, but first, renovations need to be completed on the Dinamation Building so the senior center can move to that location and leave the present senior center vacant. "The best fit, though, would be something at the county (complex)," Rhoderick said.

Municipal Court Judge Corrine Padilla said she and the other municipal court employees are ready for something to happen. "It is very cramped in that trailer," she said.

There is another concern as well. A few months ago a defendant asked Padilla how the staff would escape if the trailer were to catch on fire. She told him, "Out the windows," until the man pointed out the windows are covered with protective bars, meaning there is no escape from the building other than out the front door. "Now, I don't know how we'd get out," she said.

The ideal scenario would be for the New Mexico Legislature to approve a Legislative request of $350,000 for a new building. "There're a lot of other requests at the Legislature too," said Padilla, so she is not holding her breath on that count alone.

The county court complex might be a good fit, but most of that available space is already in use, Padilla said.

A move to the magistrate court complex would create a burden. "Every time we'd need to get a receipt we'd have to drive back into Grants to City Hall to get it. We get our mail at City Hall. We get a lot of stuff from City Hall, and right now we just walk over there and get what we need, but if we were out at the magistrate court building, we'd have to drive into town to get it," Padilla said.

Magistrate Court Judge Jackie Fisher said he would see no problem with the municipal court using the magistrate court, but only when the court is not being used. Padilla said such a situation would make it more difficult to schedule hearings.

"It's cramped in here and there is no security," Padilla said about the current Grants Municipal Court building at 620 W. Santa Fe Ave. "We've talked with the city manager and John Rhoderick, and they tell me that they are doing what they can."