Potter County judge ponders big 'vision'

Potter County Judge Nancy Tanner campaigned for office in 2014 with a pledge to implement a new vision for the county.

She's gone big.

Tanner, who took office in January, is considering a three-pronged strategy for repairing and replacing some of the county's criminal justice infrastructure. It's going to take some time, lots of study and a serious dose of patience to see the project to fruition, she cautioned.

The payoff would result in the construction of a new District Courts Building, which currently sits across Fillmore Street from the renovated County Courthouse. It's a building that former County Judge Arthur Ware whom Tanner succeeded refers to derisively as The Grain Elevator.

But to get to that point, Tanner believes some other things have to happen first. She's mapping out a sequence and a strategy for getting there.

We need to get the sheriff a new administration building, Tanner said in an interview at her courthouse office. Sheriff Brian Thomas's department occupies about 24,000 square feet at 608 South Pierce Street. The first thing we need to do is build him an admin building next to the county jail, Tanner said.

Once that's done, the county would tear down the old administration building, leaving a vacant lot already owned by the county.

The next step in the sequence is to build a new mental health office and provide some space for female jail inmates who currently are housed in the jail, according to Tanner, who said she would prefer to have the females housed away from the male inmates. We could use that as an intake center for incoming inmates, she said.

Tanner said she would like to see a mental health court set up to process individuals with mental or emotional disorders. She noted that a large percentage of jail inmates are diagnosed with some form of mental illness. Tanner said she's talked already with 181st District Judge John Boardand 47th District Judge Dan Schaapabout the possibility and that they've expressed interest in such a court.

The property is at Fifth Avenue and Bowie Street, which the county also owns already, she said.

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Potter County judge ponders big 'vision'