The county board of supervisors this week earmarked $1.7 million to cover the cost of 19 separate improvement projects at 11 of the county’s courthouses which will improve access to those facilities for the handicapped.
The money was set aside as part of county chief executive officer Greg Devereaux’s requests contained in the third quarter budget review presented to the board at its meeting this week. The funding for the projects is to be provided by federal Community Development Block Grants received by the county. The projects are part of a settlement reached by the county in a lawsuit filed by Ruthee Goldkorn, John Lonberg, Kimberly Wilder, Michael Flippin and Alfred Chichester against the county of San Bernardino, San Bernardino Superior Court and Superior Court executive officer Stephen Nash that claimed the county’s courthouses are inaccessible to the disabled.
That suit was being heard in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips in Riverside when the case was mediated to a close by U.S. District Court Judge George H. King. That settlement called for the county to pay $80,000 in damages to the plaintiffs in the case or their estates, the payment of another $690,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs, the provision of $61,000 to oversee the efforts to render the courthouses accessible, together with an agreement to make all 13 of the county’s courthouses accessible to the disabled.
Devereaux’s plan calls for a  $93,000 project and another $40,000 project at the Barstow Courthouse to bring it into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act; a $72,000 project and another $180,000 project at the Big Bear Courthouse to bring it into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act; a $140,000 project and another $30,000 project at the Central Courthouse in San Bernardino to bring it into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act; a $95,000 project at the Central Courthouse Annex to bring it into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act; a $60,000 project at the San Bernardino Civil Courthouse to bring it into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act; a $35,000 project at the Central Juvenile Dependency Courthouse  to bring it into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act; a $73,000 project and a $40,000 project at the Chino Courthouse to bring it into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act; a $35,000 project at the Fontana Courthouse to bring it into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act;  a $132,000 project and a $50,000 project at the Joshua Tree Courthouse  to bring it into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act; a $46,000 project and a $40,000 project at the Needles Courthouse to bring it into compliance with the Americans with Disability Act; a $215,000 project at the West Valley Courthouse in Rancho Cucamonga to bring it into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act; together with a $104,000 contract and a $220,000 contract at the Victorville Courthouse to bring it into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.