CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — On Wednesday, County Commissioner put a discussion on hold for project that could add more space at the Nueces County Juvenile Justice Center.
County judges have requested the addition of a secondary courtroom at the County Court of Law No. 5, located at 2310 Gollihar Rd.
The initial budget was approved for $60,000 on May 24, 2023. However, in just a little over a month, county commissioners were advised the budget has nearly tripled, with a new price tag of $188,033.
Due to the unexpected changes within the budget, county commissioners decided to table the discussion of the proposal until another meeting, in hopes to find another way to fund the courtroom.
“Quite frankly, the number came in about $120,000 higher than we budget," County Commissioner Brent Chesney said. "Right now, we don’t have a funding source for that. So we need to table that, go back and take a look to see if there is something we can do to still accommodate the need, but maybe look at the cost a little more.”
County Judge Timothy McCoy said the need to build a second courtroom comes with the growing number of cases the juvenile center has seen over the past few years.
"We would average maybe 115 new cases a year, where now we're seeing at least 370 to 390 cases," McCoy said.
He added they've resulted to using an additional training room, courtrooms at the Nueces County Courthouse and even have given an option for Zoom hearings to accommodate the lack of space. McCoy mentioned if he were to call a full docket in the existing main courtroom, there would be too many people and it could become a safety hazard.
Chesney said that one of the factors which increased the initial budget was additions to making the secondary courtroom ADA compliant.
In the meantime, while county commissioners gather more funding options, Judge McCoy said he's also looking into other eligible grants that could help fund the project.
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