Tag Archives: Justice Center

local news

Old courthouse turns into a business magnet

Time for a mea culpa.

I was an adamant foe of an effort to spend public money to revive a long-abandoned county courthouse in Randall County. I voted against a referendum that called for such an expenditure.

It turned out that I was among the minority of voters. Most of them who voted in Randall County approved the expenditure of public funds to refurbish the exterior of the courthouse building that was erected in1909. The county abandoned it some years ago, relocating many functions on the other side of Canyon, Texas.

The county finished the outside of the building. The inside remains empty. It hasn’t been touched.

One of the initial foes of that public expenditure was Randall County Judge Ernie Houdashell. The judge is one of my better friends in public life. I admire the lifelong Republican politician greatly. I thought he was correct to oppose spending public funds on the courthouse building.

He has turned the corner. Why? Because the Canyon Square has sprung back to life. Various businesses have filled virtually all the empty storefronts on the square. Downtown Canyon is brimming with life. Houdashell credits the old courthouse structure as being the magnet that has drawn the businesses downtown.

The City of Canyon looked for a time at moving into the courthouse building, but then backed out when it determined it couldn’t rehabilitate the building in a cost-effective manner for municipal purposes.

I don’t have the vaguest notion where the county is going with the structure. It still owns the building. It won’t reinstall any county government functions in the 109-year-old building. Its Justice Center is functioning across the street from West Texas A&M University; the old finance building serves as the headquarters for the commissioners court across the street from the old courthouse.

However, the 1909 courthouse building looks spiffy and well-groomed in the middle of the square. The storefronts surrounding the building are busy.

Judge Houdashell, once a staunch critic of the old structure, now is one of its biggest fans. I, too, am a believer in what has happened.

Life is good in downtown Canyon. Who knew?

local news

Courthouse building: opportunity or eyesore?

I ventured recently to Canyon, Texas to interview a West Texas A&M University professor on a project for Panhandle PBS.

And as I usually do when I venture to the Randall County seat, I drove briefly around the Courthouse Square.

There it was. The old 1909 Courthouse building. All dolled up. The yard was manicured. The clock tower was keeping time. The building was nice and shiny. The windows were clean.

Then I looked closely at the windows from my car and noticed the interior was dark. Still. Not a thing going on in there — that I could see.

I keep wondering: What is going to happen to that building?

Randall County vacated that structure years ago. Commissioners Court has moved across the street into what used to be the old county jail. Virtually the rest of the government structure has moved a few blocks east to the Justice Center, which once was home to a Wal-Mart.

County Judge Ernie Houdashell told me a few years ago he was trying to swing a deal. With whom, he didn’t say. He just would tell me that some folks are interested in moving into the building.

It’s also interesting that the Randall County website features the old courthouse structure on his home page.

http://www.randallcounty.org/

Houdashell is a wheeler and dealer par excellence. I wish him well in his search for a worthy tenant. I have a few guesses on who or what might move in there. The Canyon Economic Development Corp. comes to mind. So does Canyon City Hall. I once thought the Canyon Independent School District might be interested, then CISD built that new office complex at the north end of town.

It’s just a shame to see a building with a renovated exterior paid for with historical preservation grant funds and local tax money just sitting there. Empty. Waiting for someone to turn on the lights.

It’s too pretty a structure to remain vacant.