Superior Court Justice thanks county commissioners for work on courtrooms

The Board of Commissioners traveled yesterday to the Belknap County Courthouse on Court Street in downtown Laconia to hold their regular bi-weekly meeting in the recently refurbished Court Room One. They were greeted by Justice Kathleen McGuire, who used the occasion to thank the commissioners for the recently completed renovation of the court room, chambers and waiting and jury rooms by the county’s maintenance staff.

McGuire, who became presiding justice of the Belknap Superior Court at the beginning of 2009, pointed to the walls of the courtroom, noting that the cracks and blemishes were removed before the room was repainted.

She was highly complimentary of the work performed by Robert Phair, an inmate at the Belknap County House of Correction. He repaired the finials that adorn all of the railings in the courtroom. He also refinished all of the oak furniture and woodwork in the 105-year old courtroom. The exterior walls and the windows of the waiting room were also repaired and refinished.

Perhaps the single most appreciated improvement, according to McGuire, was having the windows in the courtroom and adjacent waiting and jury rooms washed. “I think it was the first time they had been washed in more than 20 years,” she said. “I am grateful for all the work that Director of Maintenance Harold Powell and his staff did to make these rooms a much more pleasant place to work. The results of their work have brightened my spirits.”

According to an article written by Laconia attorney Peter Millham that appeared in the January 1984 issue of the New Hampshire Bar Journal, the courtroom has retained its “excellent acoustical qualities” despite the lowering of the ceiling in the 1940s. It “remains one of the best courtrooms in the state in which to try a case.”

The same article also noted that the courtroom provided the “theatre for the trial of Howard Long, the last murderer to be hung in New Hampshire.”

The state pays approximately $260,000 per year to rent space at the courthouse from the county. The Superior Court occupies the entire second floor, and the Probate Court has space on the first floor.

In other action, the commissioners agreed to notice a special meeting for November 23 in order to make revisions to the county’s proposed budget that may result from a change in amounts estimated for the cost of employee health insurance for the coming year. The commissioners used an estimated increase of 20-percent in the health insurance number. They expect Primex, the health insurance carrier, to advise them of the final rate numbers before the end of this week. The commissioner’s office has to put copies of the budget into the mail by Wednesday, November 25, in order for them to reach members of the County Convention and municipal officials before December 1.

The official presentation of the 2010 budget to the County Convention will occur on Monday, December 7, at 7 p.m.

The County Convention, which is made up of the county’s 18 state representatives, is responsible for giving final approval to the budget document.

The commissioners also approved an extension of the county’s workers’ compensation and liability insurance policies for another two years and gave approval to County Attorney Jim Carroll to apply for two federal grants. One of the grant applications will be for 100-percent funding of a new color copier for the County Attorney’s office. The other is for the eleventh year of partial funding for the salary of the office’s attorney who is assigned to domestic violence cases.