Now that the Perry County Circuit Court has moved its offices and courtrooms to the Joint Justice Center, the county commission and the county clerk’s office have decided to relocate within the next several months from the county’s administration building at 321 N. Main Street to the Perry County Courthouse.
County Clerk Jared Kutz explained the upcoming move and why the county commission and Kutz’s office are vacating their spaces at the county administration building.
"The county commission decided that whenever the courts moved to the Justice Center, there should be activity and vibrancy on the town square,” Kutz said. “Obviously, that big, beautiful old building needs to have something happening inside. After doing extensive research, talking to many officeholders, and analyzing space requirements for various offices, they realized that when the administration building was bought in the early 90s, one thing that was rarely seen there was computers. I mean, there were computers. They existed. They were here, but they weren’t on every desk.
“In the 30-plus years since we’ve been here, our offices have, due to technology, begun collaborating differently. There were processes my office needed to be involved in that related to the assessor and the collector. Now, we have different reports and technological tools that enable us to do those things without inconveniencing the taxpayer by having to visit three different offices — now they only need to go to two. We, and the commission, receive that information, so technology has changed some of how we operate.”
Kutz explained that the commissioners looked for ways the county could better serve its constituents and decided to relocate its offices and meeting area to the county courthouse.
“[The county courthouse] is the political and social center of our community,” Kutz said. “And the highest-ranking body in the county, legislatively, from an elected standpoint, is the county commission. Yes, we could go up [to the county courthouse] and do things, but I come to my office several times over the course of each week. I come to my office several times during those commission meetings. It’s a convenience thing. Also, how cool would it be to vote in the courthouse?
“The [county administration building] is a beautiful building, and it’s historical, but I need to be with the commission. So, we’ve figured out what the layout will look like and how our office will be arranged. We’re not making many changes in the courthouse, and definitely nothing structural will be altered. There will be some painting, new carpet tiles in certain areas because we had to adjust floor layouts in a couple of rooms. Maybe a wall here or there, but nothing major or significant. I’m excited that the commission will be in Judge Brewer’s old chambers, and my office will be on the first floor.”
According to Kutz, his current office is the only county office that hasn’t been remodeled, repainted, or relocated in the past decade.
“And rightfully so,” he said. “I like it the way it is, but we are also the only ones who have not done any remodeling. If we were going to stay here, we probably would have done something different to modernize the space a little bit, not from an aesthetic standpoint, but from a service to the citizens’ standpoint. That’s one of the things we really looked at during the 2024 election — the November general election. We struggled. We had so many people in these hallways. It’s just not conducive to crowds of people like that. The courthouse will have wider hallways and more of them, making it more conducive. The space is also going to be much more suitable for commission meetings. Up there, the space will be wider. We’re going to use the old benches from the courtroom for the audience, but we’ll have a separation between the people there to report to the commission and those there to observe."
Kutz described future moves to the courthouse as a phased process, and at this point, won’t include giving up the convenient drive-up lane at the administration building.
“First, the commission is relocating my office, and then we’ll move on to the next phase,” he said. “That phase might involve these office spaces because, again, how do you better serve the constituents? I would guess some constituents may benefit from not having to use a long ramp to access a hundred-year-old building, among other considerations. These are the issues the commission is examining — not just what they want or need. This thought process began as a way to find out what would better serve the people.”
