Advocacy center expansion sought

When children are the victims of abuse or neglect, police and prosecutors want a welcoming, non-threatening space where they can talk about the difficult details of what happened.

The county’s child advocacy center was restarted in 2012, after the 2008 flood destroyed the previous building it was housed in, but now officials say the center needs to expand. The current rooms, which provide for interviewers to meet one-on-one with kids, with separate rooms for other officers and family members to wait and watch, are too cramped.

The goal is to make more space for the child advocacy center housed in the Johnson County Prosecutor’s Office, while also making more room for the child support program, which needs a separate space to comply with IRS rules about access to tax data, Prosecutor Brad Cooper said.

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In order to do that, the Franklin City Court will need to move from what was planned to be temporary office space, he said.

Since 2010, the prosecutor’s office and the city court have been sharing the former Franklin police station at 1 Caisson Drive, just south of downtown Franklin. The building was given to the county as part of a 2010 land swap deal with the city. The county agreed to temporarily lease some of the space in the building to Franklin for its city court, with the intention of eventually using the whole building.

Now, as the county needs more space, officials have let the city know the lease won’t be renewed in June. Franklin officials are meeting to determine the next location of the city court, which handles violations of traffic and city rules.

In the side of the building that contains the prosecutor’s office, space has become so cramped that some employees are working out of desks in a conference room. They’ve had to convert both closet space and part of a conference room into offices, Cooper said.

With use of the whole building, the prosecutor’s office will add extra rooms for the child advocacy center, he said. The rooms would be primarily used by law enforcement and the Indiana Department of Child Services to interview children who have been victims of crimes, as well as adding places where family and officers can observe via video, Cooper said.

More room for law enforcement to observe the interviews is needed, since right now a video feed is set up in a closet tucked behind a maintenance area, he said.

A larger waiting area also will be more comfortable for family members, Cooper said.

Employees with child support services who handle data from the IRS will move into the city court offices, he said. In order to have access to IRS data, the people who have the authority to use it must do so in a separate, secure area, Cooper said.

A specific cost for the work isn’t known yet, but Cooper said it would be minimal, and he wouldn’t need to request additional funding from the county council.

When the prosecutor’s office takes over use of the entire building, it will finally have the amount of space it had before the 2008 flood, which destroyed their prior offices in the former Oren Wright building, Cooper said.

“Nine years after the flood, we will finally be back to where we were,” he said.

The prosecutor would like the extra space in June, but Franklin officials aren’t sure yet when the city court will move and are still exploring their options. The city is looking to move the court into an existing building, rather than purchasing or constructing a new one, Franklin Mayor Steve Barnett said.

If necessary, the city may ask the county for an extension of their lease, he said. Barnett said he was thankful for the county’s patience with the city.

Barnett, council member Drew Eggers and city attorney Lynn Gray have begun meeting to discuss possible options, which for now include city hall and the police department.

If the court were to be moved to city hall, court hearings would be held in the city council chambers, as that room doesn’t see much use outside of meetings, Barnett said.

Offices for court employees would be set up in city hall, though what changes would need to be made to the floorplans isn’t known yet, he said.

The police department is a secondary option. The building has space for the city court, but changes to the layout would have to be made, he said.

The city is looking for the option that makes the most sense financially, Barnett said. How much the move will cost, how long any work needed will take and where the funds will come from haven’t been determined yet, he said.