Clock ticking as commissioners plan unification

County commissioners have one-and-a-half months to coordinate the transition of at least 75 years’ worth of county documents as the Eureka justice court annex prepares for closure. The decision to close the annex, made by commissioners in January, sparked frustration in the county’s north end. As the end of the year approaches, Stormy Langston, current Eureka justice of the peace who lost to Jay Sheffield in the Nov. 4 election, believes county commissioners will have a hard time getting everything in order before 2015.

“It’s a goat rope,” Langston said of the situation. “We still need to find out when and where the files will be moved.”

State law requires criminal records to be saved for 75 years, so Langston is sure the 106-year-old office has records dating back to at least 1939. Those documents must now be transported to Libby as the county seat’s justice court will now serve as the county repository.

Eureka Justice Court Clerk Bonita Cook said her office is loaded with file cabinets.

“Oh my gosh, we have a ton of files in the storage unit and in the break room,” said Cook, who has worked 23 years in the office. “And I haven’t been told a thing about what we are going to do with them.”

County commissioners will meet 9 a.m. Friday in the Lincoln County Courthouse to discuss the logistics of the unification. Langston has said she would be willing to aid commissioners in the transition process, but said Thursday evening that she had not been invited to the meeting.

“All of the details of moving everything could have been figured out last year, or at least before the last six weeks,” Langston said. “Basically, the whole attitude has been ‘We’ll get to it.’ Well, it’s mid-November. The logistics didn’t have anything to do with the election.”

Cook characterized the transition as a “huge challenge,” adding that the movement of the physical files may be the simplest matter. The county’s two justice courts operate on different computer systems, neither of which has access to the other’s information. As Cook sees it, the biggest impact will be felt by the people who can no longer walk into their neighborhood justice court for help.

“We have probably somewhere between 10 and 20 people walk in every day,” Cook said. “None of the commissioners, outside of Mike Cole, have been in this building. They just have no idea what they are doing.”

Commissioner Tony Berget said closure of the north annex will save the county approximately $100,000. Commissioners and Sheffield have said they believe technology such as video conferencing and electronic payments of fines will ease the transition.

Langston unsuccessfully pursued an injunction against the closure of her office earlier this year in a case against county commissioners.

Cook and fellow Clerk Pat Good are unsure whether they will have jobs next year. Cook said she is yet to hear anything from commissioners on whether there will be a need for extra help at the Libby office.