Judicial Council sets Aug. 10 deadline for response on Dame Shirley Plaza
By Debra Moore
During the July 18 meeting of the Plumas County Board of Supervisors, the topic of Dame Shirley Plaza came up toward the end of the meeting when the supervisors discuss the correspondence received from constituents. As Supervisor Greg Hagwood mentioned the plaza, County Administrative Officer Debra Lucero said she just had received a letter from the state judicial council asking the board to decide whether the plaza was an option to site the new courthouse.
Plumas News reached out to the Judicial Council following the meeting and received this response, “The Judicial Council emailed a letter yesterday (July 17) to Debra Lucero, County Administrative Officer for the County of Plumas. The letter asked if the county was still in support of locating a new courthouse on Dame Shirley Plaza, next to the existing courthouse — specifically, would the county provide a Board of Supervisors Resolution by August 10, 2023, expressing that support.”
The next meeting of the Board of Supervisors is Tuesday, Aug. 1, and the supervisors are scheduled to discuss the issue then.
The project is currently in the site acquisition phase and three sites have been shortlisted from the 10 locations originally identified: Dame Shirley Plaza, the Feather Publishing building on Lawrence Street and the Stone House in East Quincy.
“As one of those three sites, the council at this point is doing its due diligence to determine if Dame Shirley Plaza is a viable location and if the county would be willing to support the transfer of the property for this purpose,” read a statement on the topic by the Judicial Council.
The Council then reiterated that before any decision is made on the location, the Judicial Council, the Superior Court of Plumas County, and the Project Advisory Group will review/analyze the locations to ultimately confirm one preferred and one alternate site.
Those two sites will then be presented to the council’s Administrative Director and at a public meeting of the council’s Court Facilities Advisory Committee. The public can provide written or in-person comments at committee meetings—dates and meeting agendas are posted on the committee’s public webpage. The committee will discuss the site options at its meeting and take action on the site selection package presented.
Further steps on the process are under that same Schedule section on the project webpage.
Other than the green space, the other two shot-listers certain are better choices, as we do not lose our downtown great green space, but the replacement of either of the other two would certain be a visual improvement, and a better application in spurring growth and development in Quincy, and Plumas County.
Dame Shirley should NOT be an option for a courthouse. The site was rubble, an eyesore, and a mess when I moved here in 1999, but the Street Scape Committee to which my husband and I along with dozens of other Quincy-ites worked hard and long hours to clean up turned that block into what has become a beautiful gateway to our town should remain as it is: a gathering place for locals to rest, play and have lunch, a Veterans’ Memorial, a venue for musical and art events, farmers markets, and other community gatherings. The BOS should not allow a beautiful space to be destroyed.
Things have changed since Dame Shirley Plaza was created. It has become a valued and much-used community green space. Meanwhile, state requirements for county prisoner transport and state building landscaping have changed, as well as County budgets and staffing. These latter operating considerations — including the staffing, vehicle, and fuel costs of transporting County prisoners to and from the jail and court — differ significantly between the three sites under consideration. These are expenses that will be borne by the County, not the State, and will be ongoing needs in every County budget. The Stone House site in East Quincy would significantly minimize County expenses with regard to prisoner transport. The Dame Shirley Plaza site is the farthest from the jail, is the least efficient of the three sites to access, and would require more staff time per prisoner transport than the other two potential sites. The Stone House site is the fiscally prudent location for the new courthouse for Plumas County.