FINDLAY, Ohio — It's been nearly a decade since work began to replace Hancock County's aging juvenile court building.
For decades, the Hancock County Probate and Juvenile Court has operated inside a historic church building in downtown Findlay.
Since 2014, county leaders have been aware that the facility was no longer working for what the court needed.
"The courtroom is extremely small, so in a children's services case, we have about 7 attorneys in there," Hancock County Probate and Juvenile Court judge Kristen Johnson said. "The clients are not able to sit next to their attorneys for the hearing, which is not good."
Along with a cramped and aging workspace, the older facility also doesn't meet safety expectations for a modern courtroom. So just before the COVID-19 pandemic, Hancock County Commissioners wanted to build a brand new court building.
Since then, the project grew into a new three-story building that would house both juvenile and adult probate courts.
With final financial approval for a maximum $21.9 million cap late in April, the building would be constructed just west of the current court building on a county-owned parking lot.
"The building has grown some in scope, and also the cost of materials and labor have gone up," Hancock County Commissioner Timothy Behctol said. "That's a part of the reason we're at $21.9 million."
The final hurdle before Johnson signed off on the design of the new building was to make sure that no juveniles in the building would need to cross paths with adults attending probation hearings.
"Once they're in their appointments they'll be heading out of the building through side exits so there won't even be cross traffic when they come back," Bechtol said.
Bechtol also said the new building will allow for multiple county offices that have been in rental properties since the flood of 2007 to move back into county-owned buildings.
"We have three different county offices that are still in rental facilities," Bechtol said. "We would like to use some of the other spaces that we will be vacating for those offices to get those back in county-owned property."
The Hancock County Commissioners hope to have the remaining funding secured for construction to begin in mid-summer, with the new building being complete by the end of 2024.