Local leaders gathered on May 24th to hold a rededication ceremony for the Montgomery County courthouse, also known as the Phelps-Price Justice Center.
The rededication comes as the county has finished two and a half years of extensive renovations to the courthouse, which was originally constructed in 1987 and renamed the Phelps-Price Justice Center in 2009.
Circuit Judge Johnny Hardwick says the county was “not undoing anything but enhancing it” and said it shows the county's “commitment to the people to have the best courthouse in America.”
The 95,000 square foot courthouse now has a newly renovated space on the first floor for jurors and potential jurors to gather as well as completely renovated judges chambers.
Other upgrades include all courtrooms being updated to include state of the art technology and an all new circuit clerk's office as well as extensive renovations to the front of the building.
As part of the ceremony county commission chair Doug Singleton presented a resolution from the commission officially renaming the fourth floor conference room the Judge Johnny Hardwick conference room.
Judge Hardwick thanked the commission for their resolution and said, “we’ve still got a lot of work to do in this building.”
Those attending the ceremony included all five members of the Montgomery County Commission, Mayor Steven Reed, probate judge J.C. Love, Sheriff Derrick Cunningham and MPD Chief Darryl Albert among others.
