Renovate Or Build? Forsyth Commissioners To Consider Courthouse Plans

Forsyth County commissioners will get a look Thursday at new plans to update the county courthouse. The costs could reach more than $100 million. 

"Now here's what I call an outstanding piece of architecture," narrator George Hamilton IV says. "It looks a little bit strange from here. That's because you can enter from three different levels."

More than 40 years later, that building faces significant shortcomings. It's overcrowded, has serious security issues - and that strange look we heard about in the film? Let's just say it hasn't aged well.

Forsyth County commissioners will get a look at what can be done to fix those problems. County Manager Dudley Watts says the commissioners will consider either renovating the current courthouse or building a new one.

He says the timeline for the update is part of a complicated budget picture.

 “You've got school needs, you've got community college needs, you've got the Hall of Justice needs and other things that people see in the community," he says. "So the board will take as much time as it needs to go through those and make good decisions.”

George Cleland is president of the county bar association. He says the current courthouse is in such bad shape that renovating it would not be a good investment. He's wants commissioners to opt for a new courthouse.

“Look at the downtown. The revitalization effort has been fantastic – it's gorgeous. Fifteen-20 years ago you wouldn't go down there for anything. And it's hopping and lively and thriving. And right in the center of it is this disaster of a building that we call our Hall of Justice," he says. "We need a courthouse and we need it right down there projecting to the world a pride in our community.”

A 2009 study determined that renovations would cost about $80 million, and a new building would cost about $120 million. At the meeting, commissioners will get revised figures based on a new study commissioned last year.