The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1880-02-26
Our County Court House.


some Needed improvements.
"What shall we do with our Court
House?" is question which many
citizens deem of no small Importance.
Those who have frequent occasion to
visit the old temple on business cannot
have failed to notice its many defects
and inconveniences, and its almost
entire unfitness for the accommodation
of the public offices and those having
business to transact in them. We pro-
pose to briefly call the attention of the
public to several of these defects, in
hopes of eliciting a more thorough dis
cussion of the subject pro and con, that
prompt measures may be taken to REM
edy them.
In the first place, the Treasurer's
Office, which once or twice each year,
during the tax-paying season, is visited
by five to six thousand people who
flock there to replenish the COunty's
and contribute their mites
TO the means necessary to carry on the
State, County, Township and Munich
pal Governments, is a small, narrow
dark, inconvenient cubby-
hole, with hardly sufficient room to
half dozen persons at
a time, lily lighted, heated and venti-
lated, uncomfortable and unhealthy for
officers, and the people who gather
there by hundreds at a time, all anx-
ious to be promptly served. 1t would
seem that, to those who have been Oc-
casional visitors to this department,
no argument is needed to convince
them that an improvement would be
for the benefit of the people generally.
In the next place, the offices of the
Recorder and Clerk are numbered up
with records, files and papers, until
there is scarcely room in either for
another volume. These offices contain
the evidences of title to every foot of
real estate in the County, which would
be imperiled in case fire should occur
in the building, occasioning great in
convenience, if not loss, to every citi-
zen of the County. The apartments
in which the records and papers are
kept, besides being too small and in
convenient, are far from being fire.
proof, and the burning of several pub.
lie buildings of like character, recent
ly, furnishes evidence conclusive thai
court houses and city halls are no more
exempt. from destruction by fire than
buildings Of private citizens. What il
needed, and what the people should
demand, in our opinion, is the con
struction of convenient, commodiou.
and absolutely fire-proof apartment!
in which the records evidencing the
titles to all their homes and farms, may
be safely and securely kept.
Another need, which those who
have been called to serve on juries will
not fail to recogniZe-thato of two ol
three rooms where those who are called
to determine the controversies of theil
neighbOrs may pursue their delibera
tions in a quiet, comfortable manner
entirely free from molestatiOn- Al
present no such apartment exists
There is not even a room therein ir
which the grand jury can conveniently
discharge the duties imposed uper
them; no room that was designed fol
such purpose.
This old building, substantially il
its present shape, has been in use fol
half a century, and the question will
be asked, why can we not continue t.
use it as it is for years to come without
incurring the expense of changing ant
improving it? The same question
would have been equally pertinent
before the present house was built
In the fifty years it has been in uss
the necessities of the public have out
grown Its capacity.
What is needed is an additional
building containing safe depOsitories
for the valuable public records, two OI
three commOdious jury rooms, and ont
or two convenient, cOmmOdiOus Office.
for the accommodation of the public
The Commissioners, who are tht
guardians of the peoples interests
should take steps to supply the def
cheney, or, at least, to ascertain thu
wishes of the people in the premises
We have thus hastily expressed Oul
views upon what we regard an impor
tant subject, and leave it, hoping 9th
ers will take it up and more fully dis
cuss it.