A group of around 50 people gathered at the newly-finished Three Rivers campus of the St. Joseph County Courts system Tuesday. The building, which previously housed the Three Rivers Public Library and the St. Joseph Commission on Aging, now houses St. Joseph County Friend of the Court, Probate Court, and Family Court. County commissioners, members of the engineering and construction teams, and community members were present for the ribbon cutting and reception.

County Commissioner Ken Malone called the campus “one convenient location for similar services […] and that’s great because it’s something that, when we were looking at trying to expand over at our Centreville campus, it would have been very difficult to ever achieve that.”

“It’s taken years to put this together,” Family/Probate Court Judge David Tomlinson said of the project, noting that more space, better security, new technology, and modern facilities will greatly serve the staff and public.

“It’s a great reuse of this building because it needed a huge amount of investment that not your average business owner could do,” said Christy Trammell of the Three Rivers Chamber of Commerce. “The public partnerships with the city and the county ended up being a win-win for all.”  

Deborah Haak-Frost is the Caretaker for Community Engagement at GilChrist Retreat Center in Three Rivers, and volunteers with *culture is not optional, a Three Rivers-based community development organization.