Friday, August 13, 1999
Judge's arrival caps move to courthouse
Covington facility in use
BY SUSAN VELA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COVINGTON — There are computers on the floor, his desk is missing and wires are coming out of the walls and ceiling. But U.S. District Judge William O. Bertelsman was pleased Thursday to finally spend his first full day in the new $22 million federal courthouse.
“I don't know if I could find my robe,” the judge said, joking about the boxes still to be unpacked. “I'm really thrilled. There were times when I despaired. It really makes all the effort ... worthwhile.”
The judge, who began pushing for the new federal courthouse about a decade ago, said it will take another two weeks before all the furniture is in its proper place and the new five-story, 108,958-square-foot federal building on Fifth Street — between Montgomery Street and Crawford Alley — has a more lived-in feeling.
The new building of red brick, cherry wood, limestone and glass is now home to the District, Magistrate and Bankruptcy courts for Northern Kentucky, plus the clerk's office, U.S. Marshal Service, grand jury suites, probation offices and a law library.
Judge Bertelsman was the last to move in, on Wednesday afternoon. He had expected to move Thursday, but the movers were ahead of schedule.
The judge had mixed feelings about leaving his old chambers at Seventh Street and Scott Boulevard, where he was headquartered for about 20 years.
“It's like leaving a house (or) a ship that has been decommissioned,” he said.
Lynn Battaglia, a U.S. District Court deputy clerk, said she also experienced mixed emotions. But she is enjoying the additional space at the new facility.
The clerk's offices are quadruple the size of the old ones, she said. Although court will not be in session until early next week, the clerk's office opened for business Tuesday. That was the day after phone lines had been connected and computers were up and running.
“Everything went really, really good,” she said. In regard to space, “there is no comparison,” she said.
The new one is supposed to be more secure than the present courthouse, where inmates generally walk through the lobby — the site of a shootout in the late 1970s — before heading to courtrooms.
In the new facility, inmates will enter the back and not be seen by other visitors until entering the courtrooms. The U.S. Marshal Service has hired more court security officers to handle the building's security.
The first floor houses probation offices and the clerk's office for federal Bankruptcy Court; the second, U.S. Marshal Service offices and the federal District Court clerk's office; third, magistrate's office and Bankruptcy Court; fourth, two district courtrooms; and the fifth floor, special proceedings and Judge Bertelsman's chambers.
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