Coryell County Officials holding open house for new Justice Center

By LYNETTE SOWELL 

Cove Leader-Press 

After a nearly a year, the end is in sight for the completion of the new Coryell County Justice Center in Gatesville. 

On Thursday, Jan. 16, the county and community are invited to attend a ribbon cutting and open house from 3-6 p.m. 

The new facility is located at 417 E. Leon St. in Gatesville. 

Dubbed the “Leon Street Annex”, the building will house the 440th District Court. 

Those reporting for jury duty in the future, once the building is ready for court services to move in, will no longer need to report to the Gatesville Civic Center, as has been the practice for some time. The facility has parking on site and also across the street for overflow parking for jury trials. 

The new structure will also be home to Gatesville area justice-of-the-peace courts, constable offices for Precincts 3 and 4, and the county game warden.

The facility includes a 120-seat district courtroom, jury box, bailiff space, courthouse holding cells, and a secure area where attorneys can meet with clients.

All of this means the facility will need a place for its IT and also will need data migration for all of the courts’ records. 

Coryell County Precinct 3 commissioner Scott Weddle has served as the project “supervisor” for the court. 

As far as getting the keys to the building, that will happen this week, as the county has received the certificate of occupancy and all inspections have passed. 

Weddle said that the IT and hardware are in the process of being moved to the new court and the target timeframe for the new offices to be up and running is by the first or second week of February.

The new justice center was partly funded with $6 million of the county’s ARPA funding, as well as $1 million from broadband funding, and the project ended up with a guaranteed maximum price tag of just over $8 million.