MERCER COUNTY Courtroom assignments undecided

A fourth judgeship will be filled in the November election.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
MERCER, Pa. -- Common Pleas President Judge Francis J. Fornelli may not be moving into Mercer County Courthouse's new fourth courtroom as planned.
Fornelli, the driving force behind the state Legislature's creating a fourth judicial post in the county, said he planned to move into a new third-floor courtroom in the courthouse, if it is big enough to hold large trials.
Mercer County voters are picking two new judges in the November election, one to fill the fourth judgeship and one to replace Judge Michael Wherry, who is retiring.
Thomas Dobson, the other common pleas judge, now occupies a 50-seat third-floor courtroom, while Fornelli and Wherry occupy the two large second-floor courtrooms that can seat about 120 each.
The county commissioners, as part of an overall courthouse renovation project now under way, agreed to convert a portion of the third floor into a fourth courtroom, and Fornelli said he planned to occupy that space.
Size a potential problem
That's still his intent, but the plan could be foiled by the size of that room, he said Wednesday.
Bids on the fourth courtroom will be opened Monday, but work isn't expected to be completed until Dec. 24.
Fornelli said he had hoped the courtroom would be ready for occupancy by Nov. 1 before the new judges are seated so he could give it a "test drive," holding court there to see if it is large enough to serve the type of trials he handles that might have a large number of participants or wide public interest, which require more seating.
If it isn't large enough, Fornelli said he will likely stay in his second-floor quarters, at least for now.
The space set aside for the fourth courtroom looks larger than the other third-floor courtroom but the seating space will be about the same, at 50 people, said Bill Boyle, county personnel director.
Fornelli said he could still move to the third floor at a later date, once the new judges are acclimated and ready to handle the bigger cases in the larger courtrooms.