A new Augusta County Courthouse in Verona would be the final piece in a puzzle laid out by county leaders in 1987.
The Augusta County Board of Supervisors in 1987 authorized a study to determine how much space was needed for county government, which was then based in Staunton, spread across scattered offices and locations downtown.
At the time, the treasurer and commissioner of revenue offices had spilled up Augusta Street and were housed in the old Grand Piano building, “a remodeled furniture store with warehouse heat,” as described in the Programming and Location Study.
“The Social Services Department currently occupies a renovated grocery store, and old church, space in a retail strip and two trailers,” according to the study, which describes the building at 261 North Central near the current Hardees, a good hike from the county offices at 6 E. Johnson St.
The current director of Shenandoah Valley Social Services, Anita Harris remembers that “(t)he renovated grocery store was the building next to Hardees … we had two trailers attached to the back of the building for additional office space. Retail space on the corner in the strip mall across Central housed our APS/Adult Services staff.”
The study recommended that “the better and more responsive decision” would be to develop a site in the county, which is what happened late in 1987 with the purchase of the former Smith Transfer complex in Verona.
The Master Plan for the Government Center was presented to the BOS in 1988 and detailed a phased plan to begin the move of core services and offices from Staunton to Verona.
Phase I included the relocation of county administration and most core offices and departments, including the treasurer, commissioner of revenue, parks and recreation, community development, economic development, the service authority, and the extension office.
That move would be made in 1990, with Augusta County government offices and departments coming under one roof of Augusta County Government Center on the site of the Smith Transfer complex.
Phase II of the plan provided for the relocation of Shenandoah Valley Social Services, which moved to Verona in 1992, and Augusta County Public Schools offices, which relocated from the current Wilson schools complex to Verona in 2013.
Recommendations to the Masterplan in 2001 looked at the law enforcement and corrections systems to provide options for the relocation of the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office, which moved to Verona in 2004, the juvenile detention center (2005), and the Middle River Regional Jail (2006), and projected the future needs for circuit, general district, and juvenile and domestic relations courts.
The masterplan documents recommended the eventual relocation of Augusta County’s courts to be close to the Augusta County Government Center, law enforcement, and corrections facilities, which are all located within a half-mile of each other in Verona.
County voters will be asked to approve the move of the courts in a referendum on the November ballot.
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Chris Graham
