Now in its final months of construction, the Geauga County courthouse extension opened its doors to local press for a first look on Nov. 20.
Now in its final months of construction, the Geauga County courthouse extension opened its doors to local press for a first look on Nov. 20.
Furniture is scheduled to be moved in December, with staff set to relocate in January, said Infinity Construction Project Superintendent Joe Daugherty.
“The building, although it looks like a bricks and sticks kind of building, it’s not,” Daugherty told reporters while standing outside the new west entrance on a cold afternoon. “It’s a hybrid building. This is a structural steel building that has a brick facade.”
The old courthouse has four floors and the new extension has three, he said.
All of the stone was mined from the same quarry used for the existing courthouse, creating as close a match as physically possible, he added.
The building is state-of-the-art, Daugherty said.
“The cornice is a perfect match for the old cornice. The stone is a perfect match because it’s mined from the same quarry. And the technology that went into this is intense,” he said. “The sound transfer coefficients and the design in itself took a long time and a lot of effort.”
Geauga County Commissioner Jim Dvorak pointed out an old stone from the original building that had been repurposed for the new entrance.
The stones were not the only salvaged pieces, the doors in the new entryway also came used, Daugherty added.
“They’re bulletproof and they’re very expensive, so we wanted to save money on the doors themselves, add security to the project and again, working with old versus new,” he said. “And though they may not look like old stone doors, it’s still an old piece of the courthouse and something they had spent money on.”
Dvorak also noted space carved out for a time capsule that will be installed July 4, 2026, as part of the United States’ 250th birthday.
Visitors will enter through the east or west doors and go through security, which now includes a baggage scanner in addition to a metal detector, Daugherty said.
“The first floor is basically split in half. You have the probation department, which is on the east side of the first floor, and then you have the clerk of courts area, which is on the west side,” he said.
The clerk of courts area will include multiple personal computers for the public records searches, he said, adding that restricted areas will be secured with card readers.
As the tour progressed, Daugherty drew attention to the walls.
“They look like just walls. They’re not. I walk the fire department through the building periodically to allow them to understand how the building is built because you can’t just bust through this wall. This wall is built differently than a normal wall,” he said, noting some walls have a sound-transfer coefficient on par with a sound studio.
The detail came from court staff emphasizing the importance of silence and preventing sound transfer in a courthouse, he said.
“All walls have insulation in (them). All walls go to the deck above. All walls have sound caulk. For every penetration that goes into that wall, you have sound caulk that goes around it. The floors you’re standing on have GenieMat underneath them to quiet everything down,” he said. “We go into a room that’s a (sound-transfer coefficient) 50 room, you could shut the door and run a saw outside and you won’t hear anything in there.”
The extension also includes various security upgrades, such as a sally port, holding cells attached to interview rooms so attorneys can speak with defendants, secure parking for judges and magistrates, and separate elevators for the public and defendants.
The interview rooms are equipped with a microphone and speaker system that broadcasts everything, Daugherty explained.
The extension is also fully equipped with fire sprinkler systems — something the current courthouse is limited in due to its age — and numerous closed-circuit television cameras that feed back to the security desk at the front entrance, Daugherty said.
Leading the group to a secure elevator used by judges, Daugherty explained the extent of the security system.
“Each one of these cars have a (radio-frequency identification) in it,” he said. “Just to get into this elevator, you have to pass through five RFID badge types, where you have to tap your badge five times. Then, you have to tap your badge on here to tell you what floor you can go to.”
Inside Geauga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Carolyn Paschke’s new courtroom — which he estimated is more than twice the size of her current one — Daugherty pointed out the ballistic paneling and the American with Disabilities Act-compliant jury box.
Currently, individuals who use wheelchairs must enter the courthouse through the basement and take an elevator up, he said.
Beyond addressing multiple security concerns, the extension also prepares for one consequence of the county’s population growth.
“Geauga County’s slow growth, we’re at a little over 96,000 people,” Dvorak said. “Once we get close to 100,000 people, Columbus is going to tell us, ‘Oh by the way, you need another judge.’ It’d be a mandate with no money.”
The old section of the courthouse will still have courtrooms, which can be used if that happens, he said, adding the Geauga County Juvenile Court may also use the space.
As its motto goes, Geauga County is where history meets the future — and this project serves as an example of that, he said.
