<p>The Franklin City Court is officially moving starting next week.</p><p>Residents who want to pay a traffic ticket or check on the status of a case will have to go online to conduct business the week of the move. Traffic tickets can still be mailed in.</p><p>The city’s court will begin their move to the northside of Franklin on Monday and will reopen for regular business hours Aug. 5 at its new location in the same building as the the Franklin Police Department, said Amy McLaughlin, court clerk.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>The Franklin Police Department is at 2801 N. Morton St.</p><p>The city court processes violations such as traffic tickets. The court also tries some misdemeanor cases such as possession of paraphernalia and reckless driving. The majority of walk-ins to the city court are people looking to pay a traffic ticket or check the status of a criminal case, she said.</p><p>Payments for traffic violations can still be mailed or paid online by going to <a href="http://www.franklin.gov">www.franklin.gov</a>, clicking on “government,” and then “city court.” People who want to check on the status of their case can check online at <a href="http://public.courts.in.gov/mycase">public.courts.in.gov/mycase</a>, McLaughlin said.</p><p>For years, the city court has been housed inside the Johnson County Prosecutor’s Office just south of downtown Franklin at 1 Caisson Drive, McLaughlin said.</p><p>Franklin’s court shared space with the Franklin Police Department until the flood of 2008, when officers moved out after the space was damaged.</p><p>The city has been renting the courtroom space from the court, but the prosecutor’s office needed the space, McLaughlin said.</p><p>The project, which includes adding storage space, is costing taxpayers about $1.2 million.</p><p>The bulk of the cost, nearly $700,000, is for expanding the building and adding a courtroom inside the north end of the police department building, where some street department employees also work. A records room is expected to cost $290,000, according to Franklin Mayor Steve Barnett’s outline of the project.</p><p>The majority of the money is coming from the city’s cumulative capital development fund, which is a city savings account to pay for special projects. Property tax dollars go into the account.</p><p>About 10 percent of the project cost will come from a special records fund, which accumulates money when residents pay late fines in the court, for example.</p><p>The prosecutor’s office will use the space after the court moves to expand the county’s child advocacy center, where investigators and advocates meet one-on-one with children while other police officers and family members wait and watch. The office also needs more space for the child support program, because workers have to access IRS data in a secure area.</p>[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="At a glance" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>Franklin City Court will reopen in its new location Aug. 5</p><p>New location: 2801 N. Morton St.</p><p>Hours: 9 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday</p><p>Monday through Aug. 2: Court offices will be closed for the move.</p><p>Until the opening: Mail in traffic ticket payments or go online to pay. The website is <a href="http://www.franklin.gov">www.franklin.gov</a>. Click on "government," and then "city court."</p>[sc:pullout-text-end]
