District Justice William Fagley's new office is flooded with sunlight. Windows with shatter-proof glass line the walls, and a tree that the magistrate has had since he was a tax collector in Greenville in the mid-1970s now stands tall in his new courtroom.

Fagley's office was moved from Clinton Street to Race Street recently, a move that added safety features and doubled the available space for the court's business to continue.

"I'm very happy with the work," Fagley said. "And we're still getting used to all of the space we have to work with."

Fagley's old office on Clinton Street was cramped and dark. It had between 1,500 and 1,700 square feet of space, most of which was taken up by the courtroom and Fagley's private office.

The four clerks were crammed into the remaining space, along with filing cabinets, suspects, people paying traffic tickets and people awaiting arraignment.

The project, which cost about $297,000, was paid for out of the county's $34 million bond issue. County commissioners set aside $300,000 for this project, as well as for a new office for District Justice Henry Russo.

County officials are "looking harder" at a vacant Farrell plaza as the site for Russo's office, though they have received two other proposals -- to build in Wheatland or to expand the current Hermitage site.

Fagley approached the commissioners about the need for the new office about five or six years ago.

"The main concern was to prevent the appearance of impropriety," he said.

When people would await arraignments or preliminary hearings, they would often see police officers, lawyers, the office staff and sometimes Fagley mingling together in the cramped space.

"Some people thought we were all discussing their case," Fagley said, "and that led them to think there was bias."

That wasn't the case, Fagley said. "We were talking about sports and the weather," he said. "There was just no room for people to sit down or anything."

Now there are two conference rooms, one for use by the district attorney and other law enforcement officials, and a separate room for defendants and their attorneys.

The clerks also have a more spacious, safer environment to work in, Fagley said.

"People used to have to walk back through the office area to get to the courtroom," he said.

Now, the courtroom has a separate entrance and exit off a spacious waiting room. Two glass payment windows separate the clerks from the waiting room.

Also, an extra room with a conference table and a kitchenette was built into the new office. Fagley said the space will be used for the Community Court, and also serves as a lunch room.

The 3-year-old Community Court program clears the court dockets of minor cases involving juveniles and makes the offenders accountable as it focuses on turning around kids' lives. Committees are composed of community residents.

Now that the building project is completed, Fagley said he can't express his support strongly enough for work to begin on Russo's new office.

"Their need is just as pressing, if not more, than my own," he said. "There is no space whatsoever there."

030401