{"id":28512,"date":"2018-03-08T03:28:58","date_gmt":"2018-03-08T03:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=28512"},"modified":"2018-03-08T03:28:58","modified_gmt":"2018-03-08T03:28:58","slug":"eight-years-on-its-still-pretty-and-still-empty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=28512","title":{"rendered":"Eight years on, it’s still pretty — and still empty"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Randall County Judge Ernie Houdashell can claim many successes during his years presiding over the county’s Commissioners Court.<\/p>\n

For instance, the sheriff’s department has built a complex on South Georgia Street; the county just recently opened its new courthouse annex on Western Street in southwest Amarillo.<\/p>\n

Oh, and the county was able to spruce up the 1909 Courthouse building on the Square in Canyon.<\/p>\n

I found a High Plains Blogger post from March 2009 that commented on the old courthouse. I noted that the outside looks good. The inside, well, is unusable. It was then. It still is today.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/2009\/03\/pretty-on-the-outside\/<\/p>\n

Let me be crystal clear: I am glad that the county was able to renovate the exterior of that courthouse. It was able to secure a state grant, and then spent local tax funds — with voters’ approval — to finish the job.<\/p>\n

The county vacated the courthouse years ago. It moved some functions across the street into the old jail building. The Justice Center was opened a few blocks away across the street from West Texas A&M University.<\/p>\n

The old building? It’s empty. Its interior is a mess.<\/p>\n

I wrote a feature story for NewsChannel10.com years after leaving the Amarillo Globe-News about a possible new tenant for the 1909 Courthouse: The City of Canyon considered moving in, according to City Manager Randy Criswell. Then the city backed off when the cost estimates proved prohibitive.<\/p>\n

The Square has blossomed since the exterior renovation. Judge Houdashell is proud of what has happened to the Square: Businesses have sprouted up along once-empty storefronts. It’s active, vibrant, busy in downtown Canyon.<\/p>\n

Houdashell credits the 1909 Courthouse for luring that activity.<\/p>\n

That’s fantastic! Houdashell’s pride is justified. However, there must be a move afoot to complete this mosaic.<\/p>\n

I haven’t asked my friend, Judge Houdashell, what he has in mind for landing a new tenant for the structure. My strong hunch is that with the Courthouse Annex project complete, he is likely to turn his significant deal-making skill to finding an organization interested in fixing up a grand-looking old building.<\/p>\n

My sense is that the success already brought to Canyon by a renovated exterior<\/em> will explode even more once they find someone who fix up and occupy its interior.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

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Randall County Judge Ernie Houdashell can claim many successes during his years presiding over the county’s Commissioners Court. For instance, the sheriff’s department has built a complex on South Georgia Street; the county just recently opened its new courthouse annex on Western Street in southwest Amarillo. Oh, and the county was able to spruce up … Continue reading Eight years on, it’s still pretty — and still empty<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[7637,7638,7639,1623,3823],"class_list":["post-28512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-news","category-local-news","tag-1909-courthouse","tag-courthouse-square","tag-downtown-canyon","tag-ernie-houdashell","tag-randall-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28512"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28515,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28512\/revisions\/28515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}