Inside the Law and Justice Center, it’s quieter than normal now that the City of Bozeman has moved out. There's more space, but the building is going to see a lot of change before the new courts building is constructed.
“With them being gone it has opened up a whole new opportunity for the Sheriff’s Office,” says Gallatin County Sheriff Dan Springer.
At the historic Law and Justice Center, normally crowded office space now is quiet, but that won’t be for long as the Sheriff’s Office plans to use the space while their location in Four Corners gets a facelift.
“[The plan is] add another steel structure that puts more of the training portions in that building and then renovate and remodel some of the main building portions,” says Springer. “The patrol division will move back here in probably the next nine months.”
Noticeable change has been taking place at the L&J, starting with the city moving out. More change is coming for the building as the county will also kick off construction on the new courts building.
“It takes a little while to recognize how fast we actually are growing, when one block starts to fall the others start to fall,” says Springer.
Bozeman Municipal Court moved to the new Public Safety Center; now it’s only a matter of time before everyone gets to say goodbye to this building they have called home for 44 years.
“Even with the extra breathing room it’s just not adequate enough for our judges, so we're very much looking forward to the new building,” says Gallatin County Communications Coordinator Whitney Bermes.
But in the meantime, the L&J will still be a little crowded as construction takes place on the new courts building.
“The two municipal courtrooms will still be getting used a lot more because we have four district court judges and only two district courtrooms,” says Bermes.
You should start to see a little more activity taking place at the Law and Justice Center campus starting at the end of October. Site work will take place at the parking lot next to the building, and the county expects to demolish the District 3 courtroom in mid-November.
