New Moriah Town Courthouse opens

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Moriah Town Justice Brian Venne (right) and Town Supervisor Thomas Scozzafava sit at the podium in the new Moriah Town Courthouse. CV-TEC students built the structure using a $50,000 state grant. Staff Photo / Lohr McKinstry

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January 8, 2012

CV-TEC students built structure that serves both judicial, local government needs

LOHR McKINSTRY Press-Republican The Press Republican Sun Jan 08, 2012, 03:01 PM EST

MORIAH — The new Moriah Town Courthouse is open and getting a lot of business.

Weekly court sessions and arraignments for Moriah Town Court take place there, Town Justice Brian Venne said.

Moriah Town Council meetings are also being held in the new structure next to the Town Hall on Park Place in Port Henry.

"It's a big improvement," Venne said. "Without BOCES, this would not have been possible."

PERMANENT HOME

Students from the Champlain Valley Technical Education Center in Mineville built the courthouse; the town paid for materials, after it was learned it had only $50,000 from a state grant to construct a building.

The grant came from the State Office of Court Administration, and Venne said he's applying for another grant to construct a jury room in the courthouse basement.

Although the new courthouse has rooms for attorney-client conferences, it doesn't have a jury room, so jury trials in Town Court must still be held in the Port Henry Knights of Columbus hall up the street.

That's where Town Council meetings were also held until now, said Moriah Supervisor Thomas Scozzafava.

"This is the first time since the 1980s we have a permanent home for our town board meetings. We got too crowded to hold them at the Town Hall."

Moriah Town Council meetings have been moved to the second Thursday of each month, at 6 p.m., to avoid a conflict with court sessions.

MULTI-USE BUILDING

Before town meetings were held at the Knights of Columbus hall, they took place at various other spots — the Moriah Veterans of Foreign Wars Post in Mineville, the Moriah Fire Station, the former Republic Steel office building in Mineville and the Iron Center Museum in Port Henry.

"By the first of the year, we had all meetings moved over (to the new building)," Scozzafava said. "This is a good multi-use building. It will serve the town well."

The building was planned after the State Office of Court Administration told the town the 12-by-14-foot room that served as Moriah Town Court was inadequate.

The town was going to erect a modular building to house the court and Town Police Department, adjacent to the Town Hall, but estimates came in at around $400,000.

"That was a lot more than we could afford," Scozzafava said. "The CV-TEC students came to our aid."

CONSOLIDATION

The building saves the town money, he said, since it previously paid the Knights of Columbus to use its building on Main Street.

At the previous court building, there was so little room that people had to stand outside to wait for court appearances, Venne said.

But the 865-square-foot addition gave them a courtroom and office space that was sorely needed, he said.

"This is a court building the people can be proud of."

Scozzafava said he and fellow electrician Ed Roberts donated their services to wire the building, and Dale Chilton of Port Henry contributed tables. Another donation gave them chairs and other furniture, and the podium came from the Old Essex County Courthouse, where it had been used in the former supervisors' chambers.

"Consolidation is the buzz word today in government, and this multi-use building will be here for years," Scozzafava said. "It saved the town money and provided experience for the students.

"They got a lot of satisfaction out of building it."

Email Lohr McKinstry at: lmckinstry@pressrepublican.com