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Renovations draw rave reviews
YOUNGSTOWN
Magistrates and support staff of the Mahoning County Domestic Relations Court have relocated from the county courthouse basement to newly renovated offices on the building’s third floor.
“The quarters here are fantastic. We have much-more professional surroundings here, and it’s really going to make us more effective,” said Magistrate Thomas Dawson.
“There’s no comparison [to the basement]. I mean, this is wonderful. It’s beautiful,” said Magistrate Donald Hepfner. “The woodwork in here — I mean, the craftsmanship is just wonderful.”
Their new quarters, which opened for business Monday, feature three magistrate’s courtrooms with raised oak benches handcrafted by county maintenance workers.
Consistent with the historic character of the century-old courthouse, the benches feature embedded marble slabs, most left over from prior courthouse renovations and some purchased new.
By using the county’s in-house maintenance staff, rather than outside contractors, to do most of the work, the county saved at least $125,000 on the project, said Pete Triveri, county facilities director.
Purchase orders from the county facilities department for construction materials for the project totalled $65,041, said Mary Lou McDonald, court administrator.
“They did an outstand ing job. That’s for sure,” Triveri said of his maintenance staff.
Besides building the benches and tables, the county workers installed some new walls and sound-proof wall and ceiling insulation, said Judge Beth A. Smith of domestic-relations court.
An outside contractor installed new heating and air-conditioning ducts, Triveri said.
The sheriff’s day- reporting inmates, who provide free labor, moved the court’s furniture Friday.
The new magistrates’ quarters make the court more efficient, productive and user-friendly by putting the magistrates and support staff closer to the judge’s fourth-floor chambers and courtroom, Judge Smith said.
The new location is also conveniently closer to the clerk of courts’ office on the second floor, the judge noted.
Besides Dawson and Hepfner; Magistrate and Law Clerk Heidi Petruska; Luis Arroyo, family services director; four secretaries; and an assignment clerk occupy the third-floor location.
The third-floor domestic- relations location was previously occupied by the grand-jury room and the county prosecutor’s victim-witness office and civil division.
The civil division is now on the fifth floor of the county administration building.
The grand jury meets in another third-floor courthouse location, and the victim-witness office is in the courthouse basement.