Madisonville, KY – The Hopkins County Project Development Board met at the County Government Center on Monday afternoon to discuss the new judicial center.
The board voted to enter into an agreement with AT&T to remove overhead phone lines above East Center Street at the location where the new Hopkins County Judicial Center will be located.

The price for the line removal is $11,866.90 which will also include removing a utility pole.

Project engineer, Keith Sharp of J.K.S. Architects & Engineers of Hopkinsville said the The Administrative Offices of the Courts has approved the site package and is now ready for bidding.  The committee agreed and voted today to allow Sharp to begin the process.

Sharp said there is some concern from the City of Madisonville regarding the drive access to and from the facility once it is constructed.  Sharp suggested bringing in a traffic engineer to help find the best plan for the city.  Sharp said, “The access could include providing a remote control devise for the main fire station downtown.”  Judge Logan Calvert, a member of the committee, motioned to have the proposal for a traffic engineer presented to the City of Madisonville and learn how they want to handle the proposal.  Sharp said, “A favorable winter could help get the project going and completed earlier than expected.”

Russ Slipsinger, Mechanical Engineer for Marcum Engineering firm in Paducah presented some of the plans for the systems design for the building.  He said the system will be state of the art and exceed EPA requirements by thirty percent.  He said, “The Judicial Center will have the most energy efficient systems available.”  He discussed how the high technology equipment will reduce energy and water consumption and help save money.  The most significant opportunity for savings will be the use of GEO Thermal heating.  He said, “The ground under the new building will be used to help heat and cool the building.”  Heat pumps will also be used that will see three times the savings of a facility the same size with a conventional system.

The Kentucky General Assembly authorized funding the new Hopkins County Justice Center in 2006 and approved its funding in 2008. The total project budget is $20.4 million. The building will be approximately 64,300 square feet when complete.  It will be located downtown on East Center Street between the Madisonville Fire Station 1 and the Madisonville First United Methodist Church.

JKS Architects & Engineers of Hopkinsville is providing all architectural services for the project. C.D. Bowling & Associates of Lexington is the financial agent.