Hillsboro Banner

A year ago we lamented here on the lack of progress on the proposed addition to the Traill County Courthouse.

Nothing was said or done in 2006 to move the project, estimated to cost $4.5 million at the time, from the architect’s drawing board into the hands of contractors via the voter.

We should note that sometime in 2006 it was suggested that that jail be built to house 22 prisoners, not 44, as was originally proposed. 

Fine, we said. It’ll make the whole package more palatable for the voter to swallow, we intoned in the editorial.

Meantime, we reported how committee after committee had reviewed and researched the concept of building an addition to our 100-year-old courthouse. All were in agreement: build new, build soon, build judiciously.

The people of Traill County were left wondering and waiting. Wondering how we were going to pay for the addition; waiting for a time frame that suggested a construction start and completion date. They were curious, too, as to when they might be asked their opinion on the matter.

The final say, in other words.

“Doncha ya suppose they’ll want a bond issue and an increase in taxes?”

We lamented, too, in the same editorial a year ago why it was seemingly so difficult to adopt a home rule charter. Just get ‘er done, we intoned, again.

This was in January 2007.

Now, it’s January 2008.

Again, little to nothing has been done in the last year on the proposed addition, now estimated to cost $6.35 million.

The suggested home rule charter stagnated, as well.

We’re not implying here that little was accomplished by Traill’s five commissioners last year; they did give away the 107-year-old Blanchard bridge. The historic structure, regarded fondly by the National Register of Historic Places and friends of Blanchard, was unceremoniously toted away last month.

Fast forward to 2008: A home rule charter and a $7 million bond issue are likely to be voted on, sometime this year, we’re just not sure when exactly. Stay tuned, we can only surmise.

We give home rule a fighting chance. Counties and cities across the state have adopted home rule charters, thanks to voters in the respective locals. No reason why it can’t work here, too.

The proposed $7 million bond issue, needed to cover the cost of the courthouse addition, is a different cat.

Figures were released last week that detailed the likely and significant tax increases involved in the 15 and 20-year bond plans proposed.

Matters little, 15 or 20 years.

The bond issue, which most assuredly will be proposed and likely voted on this spring, is doomed.

A snowball in hell has a better chance of surviving.

Make no mistake, we need a new jail and more room for the county’s Social Services agency.

Everyone agrees.

Just don’t ask them to pay for it.

But the commissioners will; at this point they have no other options, they’ve backed themselves into a corner where there’s nowhere to turn.

Meantime, they’ve invested a lot of money — architectural fees, not to mention election costs — and wasted the time of paid committee members who told them what they already knew: you need more space.

What they haven’t discovered, unfortunately, is how they can judiciously pay for more space?

The tortured results in this spring’s bond election will leave us waiting and wondering and still without resolution to a most serious situation.