Warren County courthouse could move to a location off the Indianola town square

Warren County may have to move its future courthouse and justice center away from the Indianola town square to gain the support needed to get the project back on track, Supervisor Aaron DeKock said Friday. 

Work has been stalled on the project since July when bids came back $7 million over estimates. 

County supervisors met Friday to discuss how to get the project moving forward. 

“Unless we have a change of heart and we can get something done that will last 20 years on the square,” the project might need to move to a new site, DeKock said.

That would require a new referendum and approval from Warren County voters. 

Voters approved a $29.9 million bond for the courthouse project in 2018, but that vote was contingent on the project being built on the town square. 

Another option is to go back to voters to ask for more money to complete the project. 

After multiple revisions, including reducing the square footage and making aesthetic changes to the building's exterior, the project is still roughly $3 million over budget. 

Supervisors Chair Crystal McIntyre said Friday that she’s willing to keep the project on the town square, but she won't ask voters for more money to build there.

However, she is open to asking voters for more money if the location were moved off the square, she said.

► Subscribers makes work like this possible. Join today at DesMoinesRegister.com/Deal.

“If you put together moving off the square and asking for more money, I think you are just wasting your time,” Supervisor Doug Shull said.

DeKock, who has consistently said that asking the voters for more money will fail, changed his stance on the idea. During Friday's meeting, he made some quick calculations on how much it would cost Warren County homeowners if the board were to ask for another $5 million.

“My back-of-the-napkin calculations here suggests it would cost our residents less than $20 per year,” DeKock said.

“I just want us to make adult decisions here and I think most people are going to be smart enough to look down the future and say let’s make sure we’re building the right building,” he said.

Is it big enough?

Changes to the project have some people asking whether the facility as currently proposed is big enough to meet the needs of Warren County.

The courthouse and justice center will house the Fifth Judicial District Court of Iowa, the county attorney’s office, sheriff’s department and a 52-bed jail.

Warren County Sheriff Brian Vos said the county already averages 60 inmates a day.

Christopher Patterson, an administrator for the Fifth Judicial District Court of Iowa, said the current plan doesn’t provide for minimal services of the court.

“As jail populations increase, courtroom needs increase," he said. "The population is growing in Warren County. Your citizens have a constitutional right to a timely trial. I think the citizens should rightly question the wisdom of this board.”

DeKock said the building must be large enough to handle the county's needs for at least as long as it will take to pay off the facility, which is 20 years.

“I can’t image anyone disagreeing with that statement,” Shull said.

The former Warren County Courthouse was built in 1939 on the Indianola square. District court services moved out of the building several years ago citing poor conditions. It was condemned and closed in 2018 and demolished this summer to make way for a new building.

Contractors will seed the Indianola square construction site with grass while the board of supervisors considers what to do next.

McIntyre planned to hold a joint meeting with city leaders from Warren County next week to discuss the project, but that meeting has been canceled. DeKock suggested it was premature.

The next Warren County Board of Supervisors meeting is Sept. 3 at 9:30 a.m. at the county administration building, 301 Buxton St., in Indianola.

Teresa Kay Albertson is Weeklies Editor for the Register. Reach her at talbertson@registermedia.com or 515-284-8561.