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County Attorney’s Office moves across hall for construction
Legal staff keeping up with workload despite temporary new digs
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
WASHINGTON — Amid renovations at the Washington County Courthouse, staff in the attorney’s office are living out of proverbial suitcases as crews tear down and redo their former workspace.
Since July 18, the county’s legal arm has operated out of the former supervisors’ office, across the hall from their normal location in the courthouse basement. The once wide-open room was itself recently redone, now with interior walls and a makeshift walk-up window, created by cutting a hole in wing’s front door, now affixed with a small countertop.
Despite the temporary setup, County Attorney Nathan Repp said employees were handling their duties well in the new location.
“We’re nearly a paperless office now, for the most part, everything’s digital so we don’t have nearly as much to move as we would otherwise,” he said. “For the most part, as long as we have a desk, chair, our computer and phone, we’re able to operate, and that certainly made things a little bit easier.”
The short-term setup does leave a bit to be desired, however.
One employee has described Repp’s momentary office aesthetic as that of a “Cold War bunker,” set up in a former storage room behind an exposed-brick doorway, lit by a construction lamp with a handful of wires visibly running across the walls and ceiling.
The small rooms have the same problems as the attorneys’ previous offices, as well. Many staff have shared workspaces, making it difficult to join calls and virtual meetings without disrupting one another. There’s also no private place to meet with victims and other lawyers, save for a few meeting rooms on the building’s second story that are sometimes booked out, and several flights of stairs above the local government attorneys’ desks.
All of those issues, Repp said, will be addressed by the renovations currently underway at the courthouse.
Perhaps most pertinent is the addition of a modest conference room in the attorney’s office, where legal staff can take sensitive conversations as needed.
“Previously, we would use the jury room when it’s not in use, or one of the courthouse conference rooms, but here, we wouldn’t have to parade someone through the entire courthouse to have a private meeting,” he said. “We’re still in that position we were in previously, but we’re looking forward to that.”
Other upgrades include a private office for every attorney employed by the county, and an on-site storage space for old legal documents, which the county currently stores in another building it owns.
Perhaps equally important, however, will be a new interior design for the office, more modern than the previous decades-old setup which featured wrinkling wallpaper, and few outlets for cables and computer cords.
While a new look may seem superficial, Repp said the updated aesthetic would ultimately benefit the county attorney’s office, and the people it serves.
“For people that are victims in serious cases, you want to know that your case is being taken seriously by the people who are going to be handling that case,” he said. “If it’s an office that’s severely outdated, and not capable of keeping up with modern technological needs, it doesn’t send the most positive message.”
Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com
