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FORT SCOTT — Bourbon County's chief district judge wants to move court a few hundred feet rather than shut it down while the courthouse elevator is rebuilt.
Chief Judge Amy Harth of Kansas' 6th Judicial District laid out a plan at an Aug. 12 work session to relocate court operations to a county-owned building at 108 W. Second St., about 350 feet from the courthouse, while Otis Elevator Co. rebuilds the elevator that has served the building since 1977.
“We're proposing to use that space to move court virtual for those 30 days,” Harth told commissioners.
The Second Street building housed the driver's license office from November 2018 to December 2025, when that office moved back to the courthouse.
Under the plan, security would move to the Second Street building's front door, and eight offices along one side would double as private Zoom rooms for confidential hearings. Those hearings would include child-in-need-of-care and adoption cases, protection-from-abuse actions in which the parties must be kept apart, and private meetings between County Attorney James Crux and witnesses before testimony.
Two or three clerks would staff a public window, and three smart TVs would livestream Zoom proceedings so the public can still watch. Court staff would remain on the second floor of the courthouse to keep the record and process filings, but signage would send the public to Second Street.
Jail inmates would appear virtually rather than being transported to court.
Commissioners approved the $199,000 elevator modernization in December. Pinning down a start date proved to be the meeting's central puzzle.
Commission Chairman Samuel Tran said Otis Elevator Company needs a three-week lead time to deliver parts, then two weeks to install the new equipment, a week to tie it into the building's power and a cushion week — four weeks of work in all. He stressed that the current elevator would keep running until Otis is ready to begin.
That lead time put the earliest realistic start in mid-September, until Harth flagged a conflict: A court date already blocked off for Sept. 28 ruled out that month. Attention shifted to October, where Otis already has the whole month reserved for the county.
Harth first floated Oct. 26, timed to clear a jury trial running through Oct. 2 and Judge Mark Ward's retirement reception on Oct. 19, then reconsidered. Starting Oct. 20, the day after the reception, would still avoid both conflicts and leave a cushion before Thanksgiving week, she said, settling on that date as her ask.
Tran agreed to relay the date to Otis and to press the company to hold a pre-construction meeting, tentatively discussed for the week of Aug. 17, so commissioners, court staff and maintenance crews can hear the full timeline firsthand.
“If they can't get it done in four weeks, we're going to have to regroup on where we're going for trials,” Harth said, calling jury-trial space her biggest worry if the schedule slips.
Commissioner David Beerbower, who handed out a packet on the elevator's repair history, suggested the county skip designing new equipment for the Second Street video setup and instead copy what is already running at the jail.
“We don't have to reinvent anything,” Beerbower said. “We just copy what whoever installed for you guys.”
Commissioners handed court staff a key so they can walk the building and inventory what furniture is already reusable before anyone buys new.
Funding remains unsettled. Commissioner Gregg Motley said he'd come up empty checking with the Tier Institute for grants and planned to ask the Southeast Kansas Regional Planning Commission what else might exist.
“There's very few grants, private grants for government, and there's even fewer for construction or remodeling,” Motley said.
Beerbower said the tight timeline might instead push the county toward sales-tax funds. No cost estimate has been finalized.
Tran raised one more concern near the end of the meeting. Walking the building earlier, he'd noticed 9-by-9-inch floor tiles in a closet, with carpet taped down rather than glued over them — a detail his previous hazardous-materials training taught him to flag.
“Do I think there's a hazard to your health or your staff's health right now? No, I do not,” Tran said.
He wants the building professionally inspected before any renovation begins. An abatement contractor, if one is needed, would likely have to come from Kansas City.
“I can't think of anything that would hinder it,” Sheriff Bill Martin said when Harth asked whether anyone saw a problem with the plan.
No vote was taken; the work session didn't allow for one. None is scheduled until Tran hears back from Otis.
Beerbower's packet on the elevator's repair history is attached below.
