Jacob Ogles
Senate President Ben Albritton’s home county will receive $10 million to design and build a new courthouse services complex.
The House on Monday evening agreed to a Senate Transportation, Tourism and Economic Development budget proposal that includes the ten-figure sum for the Hardee County project.
Albritton, a Wauchula Republican, submitted a local funding request on the project this Session, asking initially for $20 million.
The application, from Hardee County Manager Terry Atchley, said the funds would be “used to design and construct a multi-use government complex that would be built on county-owned property adjacent to the existing county offices and co-located to the Emergency Operations Center.”
“The purpose of the complex would be to centrally locate 10 county services for ease of access and streamlined government services,” the request reads. “As a result, the courthouse, state probation, and public defender’s offices would be able to expand into the existing building occupied by the Board of County Commissioners, and the 10th Judicial System can utilize the existing commission chambers as an additional courtroom and jury selection area.”
All those services are currently housed in buildings that are each greater than 60 years old and that “do not meet accessibility and fire safety codes in this Rural Area of Opportunity.”
Initially, the Senate wanted full funding for the local priority of its president officer, and the House included no funding at all for the project. However, when the latest budget offer for the project cut the request in half, to $10 million, the House appropriators agreed to the deal.
The funding will be allocated entirely to fixed capital outlay as requested and will be used to hire service contractors for engineering, architecture, bidding, and permitting on the project.
Hardee County is considered a “financially disadvantaged community” and a “Rural Area of Opportunity” by the state.
