The Roanoke Times | File March

Montgomery County Circuit Court deputy clerks Stephanie Politis (left) and Tammy Akers work the phones on the bottom floor of the Montgomery County Courthouse in downtown Christiansburg. Circuit Court Clerk Erica Williams (standing) also is shown in the background. County Engineer Ron Bonnema said staffing space is not the problem in the courthouse. The problem is that the number of court cases has grown so much that the courthouse's three courtrooms cannot support them, he said.

The Roanoke Times | File 2007

Circuit Court Judge Ray Grubbs, has long been the driving force behind the Montgomery County Courthouse project.

Since the need for more courtroom space in Montgomery County surfaced in 1998, the county has paid more than $500,000 for three separate studies of the county courthouse's space needs and what the facility should look like.

The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors may have finally settled on a building plan, although its design is still in the preliminary stages, and it's getting more expensive.

In 2002, additions to all four sides of the existing building plus a covered, secure connection between the courthouse and the neighboring Montgomery County Jail was estimated to have cost about $12 million.

In March, the board saw plans for a $30 million project, which calls for building a new 98,500-square-foot courthouse with a secure connection to the Montgomery County Jail, building the new courthouse a parking garage and renovating the old courthouse as a public safety building.

With an economic recession looming and some county schools overcrowded and in disrepair, some supervisors say residents are asking them whether the county is spending its money wisely.

"I hear every day, you know, people saying, 'You don't need to be building that courthouse.' And you know, maybe we don't," said Supervisor Gary Creed. "But if you have someone who has the authority within government to tell you you're going to do it, you will do it because if you don't do it, then my understanding is that he has the right to have it built and bill you for it."

Creed was referring to Circuit Court Judge Ray Grubbs, who has long been the driving force behind the project. In October 1997, Grubbs told the county to do something about space problems at the courthouse. While the judge has not legally ordered the county to build, he is "hoping that the project will move forward in an expeditious matter," County Administrator Clay Goodman wrote in an e-mail.

Grubbs did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Vacant offices can be found in the upper-level wings of the courthouse, but County Engineer Ron Bonneman said office space is not the problem. The problem is that the number of court cases has grown so much that the courthouse's three courtrooms cannot support them, he said.

Each court division -- circuit, general district and juvenile and domestic relations -- is assigned a different courtroom but do share space when necessary.

For now, the county is sending overflow cases to Building C, a 35,000-square-foot wing of the County Government Center on Roanoke Street in Christiansburg that was originally renovated to house the Montgomery County school system staff, Bonnema said.

"They have a lot of conflict in scheduling so they are holding court in here pretty much on a consistent basis once or twice a month," Bonnema said. "Most of it's circuit court, because we got two circuit court judges right now and only one courtroom."

Montgomery County Circuit Court disposed of 1,597 cases in 1992 compared with 3,106 cases in 2007, according to the Virginia Supreme Court's Web site. In the same time, the number of cases concluded in Montgomery County General District Court jumped from 22,317 in 1992 to 38,839 in 2007, according to the court's statistics.

Supervisors Jim Politis and Gary Creed said the delay in building a new courthouse had a lot to do with working with three architecture firms.

After receiving a $62,335 needs assessment report in 1999 from Moseley Harris & McClintock that looked at space concerns in several county buildings, the board asked another firm, Dalgliesh, Eichman, Gilpin & Paxton, to look specifically at space needs in the courthouse and sheriff's office.

In May 2001, the firm presented the board with an updated space needs report at a cost of $40,000. From that time until January 2005, the firm's architects went back and forth with county officials over a preliminary design of the facilities, which called for renovation and expansion of the courthouse, an annex building and the sheriff's office. Dalgliesh, Eichman, Gilpin & Paxton also worked on Building C. The firm was paid a total $320,932 from 2001 to 2005, which includes the $40,000 for the study.

However, in January 2005, the board terminated the contract with Dalgliesh, Eichman, Gilpin & Paxton. When Edward Eichman, the lead architect on the project, left the firm to form his own company, the county thought it would be a good time to "re-evaluate" the project, Bonnema said.

"We hired another architectural firm, Thompson & Litton, to do a master plan again to make sure we were still going in the right direction," Bonnema said.

County officials asked Thompson & Litton to look into the costs of building a new courthouse versus renovating the old one, Bonnema said.

Beginning in 2006, Thompson & Litton architect Jack Murphy and a committee made up of Creed, Politis, Bonnema, Goodman and County Attorney Marty McMahon looked at more than a dozen scenarios for how to best serve the court system, Murphy said, including renovation and building new.

The firm also used the two previous needs assessments and conducted its own interviews with courtroom staff, Murphy said.

"It came out that it was pretty much going to be a toss of the coin which would be cheaper, to build new or to renovate. But with the problems of moving courts and moving documents and all the other ramifications with renovations, plus the fact that we need the building for a sheriff's department eventually, we just decided to go with a new structure," Bonnema said.

In March, Thompson & Litton presented a preliminary report to the county, and the county signed a contract with the firm for design and construction of the courthouse.

County officials expect to break ground next year.

In June, the county reached an agreement to buy additional land on Roanoke Street for the new courthouse from Christiansburg developer Roger Woody. The two parcels total less than a half-acre and will cost the county $600,000. Woody gifted $284,000 of the property and agreed to clear the property of all buildings, pavement, underground tanks and other items -- one of the parcels used to be a gas station -- before the Nov. 10 closing date.

Politis said he hopes the courthouse project doesn't lose its recent momentum.

"It's a headache just trying to get over hurdles all the time," he said.