The Town of Batavia Courts Facility is too small for the number of criminal cases that have been coming through each month.
Recently, the town hired an armed Genesee County Sheriff’s Deputy to assist during criminal court days which are held once a month for each of the two judges. There are also two attendants that assist with managing the herd of people by handing out buzzers to those who show up to court. Because there is not much room in the foyer, people are asked to wait in their vehicles until their case is called as one case at a time is heard inside the courtroom.
According to Town Supervisor Greg Post, in February, 88 criminal cases were scheduled, which is separate from traffic court. Post says when you do the math that is about 5-6 minutes per case.
“Some people are here for arraignment and that may take 90 seconds. Some people may take a little longer. We’re talking about the consequence of the ever-increasing number of criminal cases overwhelming this facility’s ability to handle that, particularly when the clerk’s office is open, and constituency is here to pay property taxes.”
Post says in January/February about 3,000 people paying taxes and about 400 people who had been arrested for various crimes, were coming in and sharing the same space in the foyer and sitting in the same seats waiting to be heard by either the clerk or the court.
“We’re looking for some breathing room, separation of the court from the rest of town government is a state mandate,” says Post.
The Town has also had conversations with other towns who are looking to locate their courts in the same facility.
“Originally we looked at six parcels. We have it narrowed down to two. One is a potential purchase which is contiguous with land that the Town already has operations on, and the other is leased space that might be a good location, it’s remote from residential and businesses and has its own parking and we would be able to secure it and it would be large enough to be shared with other courts in the county if they wanted to come in.”
The issue of not enough space at Town Hall came up 5 years ago, and the Town was ready to move forward with an almost $10million expansion project, but days prior to the vote, COVID took over and everything was closed down with people being restricted from entering public spaces. The courts also closed down and everything went to working remotely.
“Now we’re back at full speed, we have evolved to a hybrid, partially working from home for some of the staff, but some of the staff have to be here every day. It’s exactly where we expected to be, we didn’t do anything four years ago. We’re now looking at the possibility that regional courts may be something the state could endorse.”
About a year ago, the Town added attorney/client meeting rooms in the rear of the courtroom to provide privacy. This year, the engineering and history department were moved from the jury room to an offsite location on Federal Drive to make room for the court to use the jury room.
“Right now, this town hall needs room for the Legal Clerk, the Engineering Clerk, an office for the Supervisor, Secretary to the Supervisor, and Town Bookkeeper/Financial Clerk. We take turns sitting at card tables or working in the planning board room when there is no one in there.”
At last week’s Regular Town Board meeting, the Town authorized CPL to complete a study to provide a professional design study for two locations for the Town of Batavia court facilities. CPL will complete the study for $4,000. Post says he hopes to have the preliminary report this week and to discuss the options at next month’s regular board meeting.
“We are busier than we have the capacity to manage here. We also know a number of other communities are struggling to maintain their facilities and do not want to bankrupt their community by having to have the same accoutrements on a very limited budget.”
In the spring of 2024, Post says there will be more cases added to the Town’s court when the new Genesee County Jail opens.
“Presently, all the cases that come to court from jail infractions by inmates and visitors have been attended to by City Court because the jail is in the City, which is subsidized by New York State. As soon as the new jail opens, all of those cases will now be in the Town of Batavia which is not subsidized by New York State. We will have to absorb the cost and increase our footprint of our facility and the faculty to serve it. I’m preparing for the eventuality that our community will be much larger in all demographics, good or bad.”
Post says he is leaning towards a building that is already built that is for sale that is contiguous with existing Town facilities.
“We’ll get an evaluation from a designer on getting the cost out and then we’ll do the numbers and run the math to find the least expensive path to give us a 10-year buffer.”
Whatever option the Town chooses, it will take at least a year to reformat the facility into a court facility, according to Supervisor Post.
Pingback: GENESEE COUNTY/Town of Batavia makes offer on former funeral home property as a possible location for their new court facility – Video News Service