Willing visitors flock to courthouse

A courtroom, said Judge Richard Ilkka, is mostly a troubled place where people face criminal charges, clash in lawsuits and wrangle over land disputes, divorces and other friction.

"Probably the only people who come here and walk away happy are here for adoptions," said Ilkka, a Washington County district judge since 2007. Often those families want to pose for photographs with the judge in front of the bench.

"It's one of the more heartwarming occasions you can have in court," he said.

The rarity of good news is why Ilkka and other judges were happy to see more than 200 people who showed up recently at the courts building -- voluntarily -- to see what their tax money had purchased. The occasion was an open house and dedication at the county government center in Stillwater to show off the new five-story courts building and remodeling at the Law Enforcement Center in the east wing and county offices in the south wing.

Most of the $69.1 million project, begun in 2008, is complete. The courthouse, which has eight new courtrooms and six "shell" spaces for future expansion, is the cornerstone of the county's Campus 2025 project.

The county also has three courtrooms in the attached older building and two others that have been remodeled for family court judges. The public counters in the administrative portion of the courts building -- where records are kept and fees are paid -- is substantially larger than the previous small window at the end of a hallway.

The county's Community Corrections Department also is housed inside the new courts building.

The sprawling Tenth Judicial District includes 45 judges and covers eight counties. Ten of those judges work in Washington County.

Ilkka said the new courthouse is far more secure for judges and the public than the old one, where people of conflicting interests often mingled in tight hallways and small courtrooms. The Sheriff's Office now has safer means of moving prisoners to the courts from the county jail and segregating them from other people, he said.

The open house Dec. 4 included an address by Chief Justice Lorie Gildea of the Minnesota Supreme Court:

"I see this new courthouse as a dedication of the American spirit," she said. "It will be a place where people will come to celebrate some of the high points in their lives. They may get a marriage license to begin a new life together, or record a deed for their first home.

"It will also be a place where people will come for resolution during some of the most difficult times in their lives -- times when their property or even their liberty may be at stake."