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Source: Odessa American, TexasNov.迷你倉 03--Many Texas counties house grand, historic, beautiful and functional courthouses that are more than 100 years old yet still in use.In Wise County, for example, the courthouse was built in 1897. It was designated a Texas Historic Landmark in 1963 and has an interior that has been remodeled to keep up with changing times and technology. The exterior has been carefully preserved and repaired to keep the original look intact.The courthouse in Wise County is certainly a treasure for the entire county to take pride in.Here in Ector County, however, there really isn't much to be proud of in our Ector County Courthouse. It's no historic treasure.It's been remodeled several times, yes, but hasn't caught up with either technology or the space requirements needed in our booming little piece of heaven out here.On Tuesday voters will decide the future of the non-historic Ector County Courthouse. Vote yes to the $95 million bond issue to build a new courthouse or vote no and keep the current court.We're urging you to vote yes. We agree with the Courthouse Progress Committee that the time has come to scrap our current courthouse and build a new one.The original three-story courthouse was built in 1938, a total of about 28,000 square feet. Since then, outward additions were made in 1962, 1982 and 1985 to accommodate for a growing population.Among the difficulties for courthouse maintenance include crawl spaces to get to important air conditioning components, electrical line confusion, and faulty plumbing.Ector County Judge Susan Redford said the courthouse is functionally obsolete. Despite efforts to upkeep it, she said, the building is in a state of disrepair because of its built-in inefficiencies. "There's only so much that can be done to keep this building running," she said.The Citizens for Responsible Government committee was formed to fight the bond. It's good to see citizens getting out and making themselves heard. One of this group's arguments against the bond is that a location for the new courthouse has not been divulged. Another is that there is no official "plan" for what the new courthouse will look like.While it would be great to know where it might land if the bond is passed there are reasons why a loc自存倉tion has not been named.Backers of the bond and county officials cannot name a site they do not already own because it would merely skyrocket the price of that land, which in our mind only makes sense. As for the "no plan" argument, should the county have spent $100,000-plus of taxpayer funds to draw up new courthouse plans before the notion of a new courthouse was even approved by voters? That would have been inappropriate and clearly a misuse of taxpayer funds.No, in our opinion the anti-bond crowd is merely against any new, large public spending of any kind. They are against any new bonded indebtedness by public entities -- period. And we believe they have put forth a slew of straw man arguments to support their larger agenda.We'll be the first to say we will always oppose government spending taxpayer money merely for the sake of spending taxpayer money.But in this case, when one stacks up the opposition's alternatives against the realities of the current building's condition and the long-term needs of a burgeoning county, their assertions are merely penny-wise and pound-foolish.That said, we would fully expect that should this issue be approved that the county would proceed in a very transparent manner and ensure they do everything to take care of the new building they get, so that it will be something we can all be proud of for decades to come.The fact is our current courthouse is overcrowded, in disrepair and in some areas simply a big mess. And, county officials say, renovations would cost millions and still wouldn't alleviate the overcrowding or space and technology needs.Courthouse officials have said a new building could last 100 years as the current one has lasted 75 years. New courts will be required in the coming years as our population expands. The current courthouse just can't pull the load needed.Lots of folks are for the new courthouse -- the three chambers of commerce in Odessa announced their support.We agree and hope that voters will also agree to pay a bit more in taxes to give this county a courthouse that is functional and something we can all be proud of.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Odessa American (Odessa, Texas) Visit the Odessa American (Odessa, Texas) at .oaoa.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉