The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1905-11-02
COURT HOUSE NEEDED

OVOEku uVOS u NllULO
Judge TOwner Expresses Himself on
the Need of New Court House.
Election is Next tuesday.
Next Tuesday Nov. 7th, is the date OF
the special election which will deter
mine whether the people of Decatur
county will decide to erect modern
building for use as court house, or
whether they will continue to use the
present dilapitated old shell, and have
the public records in jeopardy, as in
case of fire the county would suffer
irreparable loss, and the property own
ers and all others who have had any
court dealings, or other public trans
actions would be compelled to go
through expensive litigation in order to
settle business affairs. No fair minded
man will dispute the assertion that a
court house is needed and badly needed
at that. The proposed court house tax is
only two mills on the dollar, not of the
actual valuation of your property but
upon one-fourth of the assessed valua-
ton. If you have $4,000 worth of pro-
d
would cost you only $1.W per year, and
this two mill tax would pay for the court
house within ten years. A few years
ago Clarke county voted to build new
court house and they paid off the cost
within ten years, and no man in the
county noticed any increase in the total
amount of tax which he paid each year.
The same would be true in this county.
Ii the new court house is not voted for
the next thing will be to provide other
quarters for the c)unty officials and a
place in which to hold court. and this
would cost the taxpayers several thous-
and dollars each year. 1t is also an
expensive matter to hold election every
year or two, and ii the new court house
is defeated this time it will have to be
submitted again within a short time
and the same expense would be incurr-
ed again.
Judge Fl. NJ. Towner is now holding
court in this city, and on Tuesday after
noon took occasion to say something
about the need of new court house,
the matter having been brought to his
attention by Judge j. w. Harvey, when
the court was making the assignment
of eases for trial. Judge Harvey said:
There is one matter would like to
call the attention of the court to, and
that is, that when court adjourns for
this week, the members of the bar re-
quest the court to adjourn. until Wednes-
day of next week on account of the fact
that we have special election on next
Tuesday for the purpose of submitting
the question as to whether we will
build a new court house. This is, of
course, a matter in which we are all
LOSE s,,f0 t,I 4
like to have the court make the adjourn
ment until next Wednesday morning.
Judge Towner's reply was as follows:
The attention of the court has been
called to this matter, but the court did
not know the condition of the docket
until he arrived to open court, and
could not determine the ma tier very
we'll in advance.
This is matter of SO much import-
ance not only to the court officials, but
to the people of this county generally,
that it would require very important
matter of court business to arise in
order for the court to determine
otherwise. The condition Of affairs in
this county with regard to a court
house are very serious. 1t has been a
matter that has been considered by my
self and by my colleagues on the bench
on different occasions as to whether, in
Justice to the court officials and those
who are compelled to be in attendance
upon court, it was safe to use the pres
ent building.
In two different wavs it is dangerous
to those who are obliged to use it, The
building now in use is hut mere shell,
held together by iron bolts, and when a
storm occurs, as the court can speak
from experience, it is a dangerous build
ing to be in, In fact as l understand,
one side of the building was blown in.
In addition to this, the condition of the
courtroom is exceedingly dangerous to
persons who are compelled to remain in
it during a long term of court. One of
my colleagues on the bench was com
PEELED to resign his position as Judge
and retire from the bench on account OF
the condition of his health that has
made him an invalid for life, and he at
tributes this condition to an illness
that he contracted while holding court
in this room.
And there seems to be no possible
comfortable and safe. To person COM
conditions might appear apparently sat
isfactory, but to those who are compell-
ed to use the room during long term
of court, the conditions are quite differ
ent. The room cannot be adequately
warmed, or kept at an equitable temper
ature, neither can it be adequately or
satisfactorily arranged SO that the air
can be kept pure; there is no possible
means Of ventiating it, and it is almost
impossible to sit here any length of
time in stormy weather without taking
a severe cold. SO that it is matter
almost personal to the court that there
should be some change as matter of
safety.
1t has been suggested that the court
should order court held within some
other room; but the court has examined
these conditions, and they are not alto
gether satisfactory 1t is almost i'm
possible to obtain assproper place to hold
court. But it seems TO the court that in
oh NJ