I was unable to attend last night’s Council meeting, but received the following brief from a friend who did go:

The comments from Jim O’Connor at City Council last night were interesting.  It came up when Beehan asked about the issue near the end of the meeting under New Business.

 O’Connor said the case load had grown to over 6000 cases a year and only 58% of these are from Oak Ridge.  The other cases are from Lake City, Oliver Springs, and all over the county.  He feels the case load should be adjusted to fit the facility or else the county should help in the cost of space.  The city gets none of the fees or fines levied in this court. 

O’Connor’s reply to Judge Murch’s letter was “…there was no more space available at the Municipal Building,” which implied to me that he is certainly no opposed to finding another place.   He agrees that the current courtroom is not secure.  He has a meeting with Gillenwaters either today or tomorrow.  Mayor Bradshaw said he could not attend that meeting because of a commitment at work.  Everybody who spoke was in favor of keeping the court in Oak Ridge.

Interesting.