Belfast officials are in the early stages of moving some municipal operations out of the increasingly cramped city hall and into the former Waldo County Superior Court building that’s located next door.
The city purchased the former courthouse at 137 Church St. early this year, after it stopped serving as a courthouse in 2019 and other county services eventually moved out, according to Economic Development Director Thomas Kittredge. Officials are now getting started on renovations that will eventually allow a variety of city services to move there.
The city is planning to add an elevator to the courthouse and an elevated walkway between it and the existing city hall, which is at 131 Church St. It will also renovate a former courtroom to serve as the new Belfast City Council chambers. In addition, the expansion will give the city more climate-controlled space for storing records.
Joellyn Warren, the city’s deputy economic development director, said the extension will be a big help to city operations that have outgrown the current city hall.
“Codes and planning are on top of each other. There’s no more storage for their files,” Warren said. “There’s conversation about general assistance [administrator Kristi Osgood] maybe moving over there. Right now, she’s operating out of a closet, so only one person can be in her space at a time.”
The project will require substantial reconstruction due to the unique setup of the former courthouse, according to Kittredge. Last week, the City Council awarded a contract to the company Harriman to plan the project, authorizing up to $400,000 for that work, according to Warren.
The city is still developing a timeline for the project and estimating its total construction costs. It received a state rebate for recent work to upgrade its HVAC systems, as well as federal funds for an environmental assessment, and it will seek grant funding for future work as well.
“It’s going to be a big project, a multimillion dollar project, but we’re going to function much better than we are now,” Warren said. “I think it’s great because it’s a building that was built for public purposes, and will be continued in that way.”
The city purchased the building from the county this past April, at a price of $700,000 that will be paid over four years.
The former superior court building was first constructed in 1854. It stopped serving as a courthouse in 2019, after it was replaced by the newly built Waldo Judicial Center. It also previously housed the county district attorney’s office and registry of deeds.
While the current City Council chambers can accommodate up to 80 people, the courthouse is expected to provide three times as much space for meetings.
Warren, who is leading the project, said it was fortunate that Belfast could buy the former courthouse, as it has become increasingly difficult to find available land in the city or pay for the construction of new buildings. Furthermore, preservation of the original structure respects the historic nature of the building, Warren said.
“I don’t know what would’ve otherwise happened to the building if we had not purchased it,” said Kittredge. “As we are growing with our city services and staff, most importantly, it allows us to keep city services downtown and not have to consider a separate office, or moving city hall further outside town. It’s difficult to find property downtown, and it’s directly adjacent.”
Correction: An earlier version of this report misstated how Belfast plans to pay for upgrades to the former courthouse. It also misstated which work Harriman is doing on the project.
