Thirteen months after the temporary closure of the Newport District Courthouse began there is still no update on its reopening from the state’s chief justice.
There is no intention to close the courthouse but moving and reopening is expensive, Chief Justice Valerie Stanfill said at her State of the Judiciary address Thursday morning before the House and Senate.
The Newport courthouse was just one of the buildings Stanfill gave status reports on during her roughly 40-minute speech. Having been shuttered for more than a year, Newport is by far the longest-running courthouse closure in the state.
“It has not been our intent to permanently close the Newport courthouse, but the cost involved in getting a new facility up and running is significant,” Stanfill said.
The courthouse at 12 Water St. closed abruptly Jan. 27, 2025, after mold was found in the leased building. But Maine state law mandates a district court in Newport to serve western Penobscot County and without it, people in the area instead have to make an hour-long roundtrip drive to Bangor to conduct court business.
“Frankly I was stunned by the Chief Justice’s comments today about the Newport District Court,” Rep. Kenneth Fredette, R-Newport said.
The state requested information in November about properties that may be suitable for a new courthouse after negotiations with the landlord stalled. Stanfill did not say anything about the result of that request.
“We don’t have any intention to close it, but we also understand that there is a significant cost to get another new facility up and running,” Stanfill said. “This is what happens with aging facilities, right?”
It is important to provide convenient court access in rural communities, Stanfill said. But it will be expensive to move a courthouse and money is limited, she said.
“Whether we continue to have a court location in Newport really is at least somewhat dependent on [legislators’] will, given the significant costs involved,” Stanfill said.
There is no bill before the Legislature to fund a new Newport courthouse, Fredette said.
Construction will likely start in 2027 for a new Androscoggin Judicial Center in Lewiston, Stanfill said. Somerset County is getting a $45 million courthouse and development has started for a Hancock courthouse in Ellsworth.
York County got a $65 million courthouse in 2023 that consolidated the Biddeford, Springvale and York district courts. Penobscot County Judicial Center, which has the superior and Bangor District Court, cost $36.4 million in 2009.
A new courthouse would likely cost roughly $4 million, Fredette said.
The judicial branch needs to show more support for rural Mainers and rural justice, he added.
“Where’s the commitment to rural justice?” Fredette said. “We’re looking for the same kind of investment in rural Maine so we can be treated equally as the big service centers.”
The judiciary is required to provide court services in Newport unless the law is changed. The Madawaska District Court closed Nov. 1, 2025, after a law was passed facilitating the closure.
“My fear here is that what we’re seeing is an ongoing attempt to really limit access to justice in the rural areas of Maine,” Fredette said.