The agreement between La Plata County and the U.S. General Services Administration to co-house federal district court offices in the county courthouse is a long-awaited announcement that both serves the region’s needs and makes good use of existing facilities. In sharing the downtown space, local and federal cases can be adjudicated conveniently, while keeping an important government function in the city’s center and easing the travel burden on those involved in federal proceedings.

Currently, some federal cases are settled at the court’s offices in Bodo Industrial Park, but many are heard in Denver – a circumstance that is onerous for the families and witnesses associated with the trials. That is particularly challenging for those involved in crimes that occur on Southern Ute or Ute Mountain Ute reservations, situated within 60 miles of Durango but many hundreds of miles from Denver. The associated travel and life disruption required under the current scenario is unduly burdensome; the agreement between the county and the federal government will remedy that.

Further, the move – facilitated by the county’s purchase of the Vectra Bank building, where many county offices will relocate upon the completion of a remodel – will combine like services in the courthouse facility from across jurisdictions. With that efficiency, both the county and federal courts will benefit.

Additionally, the long-term lease provides a cost-effective answer – for the federal government – to the ongoing conundrum of how to adjudicate federal cases locally. Building a new federal courthouse would be demonstrably more expensive than the $236,700 that will be paid to the county annually under the 10-year agreement. Further, the county will pay for the needed courthouse remodels, but can seek grant funding to cover them. The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2016 – a far shorter timeframe than new construction would deliver.

The discussions that yielded the courthouse agreement have long been in the works and with financial challenges at the local, state and federal levels, were long-stalled. The need never wavered, however, and the parties’ return to negotiations serves constituents across the Four Corners well. The combined courthouse facilities will make difficult proceedings slightly easier for those involved in federal cases. However incremental, that is an improvement of the justice system. That it is gained by maximizing the function of an existing facility through intergovernmental cooperation is an added bonus. La Plata County and the U.S. General Services Administration are to be commended for persevering to an agreement on shared use of the county courthouse.