Apr 15, 2023 4 min read

The state Supreme Court has approved a plan to revise the boundaries for Washington County’s magistrates, which will eliminate only one district judge rather than an initial proposal to remove two.

The first phase of the new judicial reestablishment plan released by the high court Thursday will go into effect in January with minor changes to four of the 11 current districts in the county.

The rest of the plan will be implemented in January 2027, when the district held by Magistrate Curtis Thompson is eliminated upon his expected retirement at the end of his term, which would reduce the total number of district judges to 10.

“It’ll bring more balance to the workload and caseloads in the magisterial courts,” Washington County Administrator Patrick Grimm said of the new map. “There is some savings to the county and state taxpayers coming from the changes, as well.”

Grimm worked closely with President Judge John DiSalle on crafting several potential maps over the past two years before submitting their proposal in July. The final plan ordered by the state Supreme Court is somewhat similar to one proposed by Grimm and DiSalle, which would have eliminated Thompson’s district and the Peters Township-based district that was vacant at the time because Jesse Pettit had just recently won a judicial election for a seat on the Washington County Court of Common Pleas. However, Phil Melograne was appointed to serve in Pettit’s seat around the same time the plan was submitted, meaning it was no longer vacant.

The original proposal would have combined Peters and Cecil townships into the same districts, but the final approved plan keeps them in the districts that they currently reside in.

But many other aspects of the plan are roughly the same as the original proposal, which Grimm said will put several municipalities closer to the district offices.

“I think there certainly are some positives for the public and individuals either filing or for a defendant in the magisterial courts,” Grimm said.

The most obvious change was moving East Washington back into District Judge Kelly Stewart’s coverage area that also includes Washington. Previously, filings for the borough went through the North Strabane-based office, making it a 13-mile round trip for police officers or residents who had to visit district court. East Washington had been in Washington’s district until it was moved out of it in 2011 when the last reestablishment plan went into effect.

“That makes a lot of sense to us to make that change,” Grimm said.

Meanwhile, Stewart’s district office currently located inside the Millcraft Center on West Chestnut Street in Washington will be moving to the county-owned Caldwell Building on South Main Street across from the courthouse. Grimm estimated that change will save taxpayers about $90,000 a year in rent since it’s a county-owned property.

Another change will be to move District Judge Michael Manfredi’s office from the North Strabane Municipal Building to a new location along Route 19 near Racetrack Road in South Strabane. Beginning next year, Manfredi’s district will include South Strabane, North Franklin and Chartiers townships.

That means North Strabane Township will be moved into a district overseen by Magistrate James Saieva Jr., whose office is in Canonsburg. According to the plan, Houston will also be in that district.

The only other change that will happen in January is that Canton Township will move into the southwest-based coverage area of District Judge John Bruner, whose office is in Buffalo Township.

All other changes, including the elimination of Thompson’s district that is currently based in Bentleyville, will go into effect at a later date.

One of the requirements for judicial districts is that the municipalities have to be contiguous, meaning their borders have to touch somewhere. But Grimm said the changes to the map also were an effort to even out the workload between the offices. He noted that the districts based in Washington and North Strabane had nearly a third of all court filings despite being just two of the 11 total offices in the county. The new map should disperse filings more broadly across the 10 remaining districts, he said.

“We’ve brought more parity to the (magisterial district judge) courts altogether,” Grimm said.