STROUDSBURG, Pa. — "This has not been easy for the community of Stroudsburg, roads have been closed, power's turned off, construction vehicles have been kind of a mess,” said Margherita Patti-Worthington, President Judge of Monroe County.
After almost four years of construction and nearly $65 million, the expansion to the Monroe County Courthouse is finally complete.
"Everybody has been working amidst what I would call organized chaos for many, many, many years, and still doing your jobs and doing it well," said Patti-Worthington.
Starting construction during the pandemic raised a host of challenges.
“We had certain portions of the building that were active and doing business as usual, and other parts next door we were renovating at the same time, along with the addition going up simultaneously," said Erik Story, the project manager of the courthouse expansion.
Those involved with the project believe this expansion will benefit the county.
"We're a fourth-class county, and we had the highest number of court cases of any other fourth-class counties, and our facilities were too small," said John Christy, Monroe County Commissioner.
"Honestly we probably needed this 15-20 years ago, we were crammed into these tiny little spaces, paper boxes piled up high," said Patti-Worthington.
The expansion includes some new courtrooms and, eventually, some community spaces for the public to use.
"I think it will bring us forward; we'll be able to use this another 50 years,” said Patti-Worthington.
"The benefit of the community is that it's going to be here for you know, serve the community for another 20, 25 years. Then it's someone else's problem to figure out what to do next," said Christy.