Ramp to be built outside courthouse for elevator project
When Washington County Courthouse was built more than 100 years ago, it housed no elevator. The courthouse was retrofitted with a single shaft, but when that one is being rehabbed this summer, the county is preparing to offer alternatives to those with disabilities who are unable to reach second- and third-floor courtrooms.
The Washington County commissioners last year awarded a $992,370 contract to Otis Elevator, Pittsburgh, to modernize the elevators using money from the Act 13 impact fee on Washington County’s gas wells in the Marcellus Shale strata.
Those visiting and working in the Courthouse Square office building and parking garage have seen one of three elevators shut down for maintenance this spring and summer, but that lift is expected to be back in operation soon and the focus will shift to the courthouse by mid-July.
The elevator in Family Court Center, formerly the jail, will be unaffected by the project. Those using the West Cherry Avenue entrance to the courthouse complex will be able to access both the Family Court Center and offices in the basement of the courthouse including the law library.
To give wheelchair access to the first floor of the courthouse, a ramp with turning areas will be built around the South Main Street steps to conform with the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
No jury trials are scheduled for August, but if a person who can’t climb the interior marble stairs notifies the court administrator in advance, hearings can be moved from the second or third floors to courtrooms on the first floor. President Judge Katherine B. Emery, judges John DiSalle and Gary Gilman and visiting judges have courtrooms on the upper floors of the courthouse. There are no chair lifts in the courthouse.
Information about the elevator work will be posted on the county’s website, www.co.washington.pa.us, or people concerned about access can call the court administrator’s office at 724-228-6797 or the Family Court Center information desk at 724-228-2999, said Patrick Grimm, Washington County court administrator.
Filing offices for civil and criminal cases, marriage licenses, wills, the district attorney’s office and two courtrooms are on the first floor of the courthouse.
“We’d like to get in and out of the courthouse as soon as possible,” said Gary Bertosh, Washington County’s director of buildings and grounds. He said work on the courthouse elevator is scheduled to begin later this month and wrap up by Sept. 3, just before Labor Day weekend.
The last major renovation of elevators at the county complex was at least a dozen years ago.