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ST. CLAIRSVILLE - Belmont County Commissioners are looking to move forward with a plan to combine Northern and Eastern Division courts and on Wednesday turned to the Belmont County Bar Association for support of the proposal.

The proposed move would see Northern Division Court's operation move from Martins Ferry to Bellaire when the new Eastern Division Court building is completed.

That building is currently under construction and is scheduled to be finished in May.

It's a move, the board of commissioners said will save the county about $130,000 a year.

The move is proposed because Eastern Division Court Judge D. William Davis has announced that he will retire as judge in December. That opens the door for the county to consolidate the two courts.

If the plan is approved, Northern Division Court, headed by Judge Frank Fregiato, will be the judge of a single division court created by merging of Northern and Eastern Division courts after Davis retires. Western Division Court will remain in St. Clairsville and will continue to be presided over by which Judge Harry White.

Magistrates would then fill in for the two judges when needed with either two part-time magistrates for each court or one full-time magistrate being hired.

According to Commissioner Matt Coffland, the board felt with Davis' retirement announcement it was time to take a step to consolidate the courts.

Before the county can move forward with any of the plans, they must first be approved by the Ohio General Assembly, Douglas R. Stephens, director of judicial and court services for the Ohio Supreme Court, said.

"Consolidating locations, especially with a new building coming in, makes perfect sense to us and we'd be in support of that, if that's what the people want," Stephens said.

According to attorney Megan Banker, president of the Belmont County Bar Association, the bar association has questions that needed answered before the bar association could give their support. Several local attorneys spoke and had questions at the meeting, including how the change would save the taxpayers money when magistrates would have to be hired. While judges' salaries are split between local government and the state and are set by state law, magistrate's salaries are determined by the local government and paid for with local money.

Coffland said the county would not have to pay the county's portion of Davis salary and benefits.

According to Fregiato, who said he was not speaking for or against consolidation, the county would see savings because there would not be a need to replace one of the courts clerk positions.

Also, he said the building that currently houses Northern Division would be used to house other county offices that are currently being housed in buildings that the county is renting and the court system would not have to pay for the cost of maintenance and other costs currently associated with upkeep of that facility.

"In terms of cost savings, there is in fact cost savings that would more than offset the cost of the magistrates," Fregiato said.

Coffland also said that part of the long-term plan is to move from part-time judges to full-time judges.

If the county were to do that, the county court division courts would be replaced with "municipal" courts.

Stephens later said that "municipal" doesn't mean the courts would be run by municipalities, but they would handle municipal cases currently heard in mayor's courts.

"The cost savings is going to be over a period of time," Commissioner Ginny Favede said. "I don't think you are going to see the immediate cost savings . . . but it's what we are working on towards the horizon."

"We have a retiring judge and that's an opportunity that may not happen again and we have to seize that on that opportunity. As Commissioner Coffland referenced, we are taking baby steps in the direction we need to be headed. We need to be headed to a municipal court system, but we can't go from three judges to a municipal court system in one step."

One question raised by attorney Charlie Bean was why the board was building the new Eastern Division building if it planned to consolidate courts, but commissioners said the building was already in process before Davis announced his plans to retire.

Attorney Ed Sustersic also spoke, asking the board to keep the needs of local police in mind, saying many municipalities have made changes to their police departments that could affect the level of service provided to a municipality when police have to go to court.

Fregiato also said it was premature to talk able elimination of mayor's courts without the municipalities represented.

Coffland said the point of the meeting was to get support and input about the combination of the two division courts.

"If Judge Davis hadn't decided to retire, we wouldn't even be here," Coffland said. "At this time, in Belmont County, it's time to look at a change and we called you in to help us through this situation and to move forward."

Commissioner Chuck Probst also said that nothing has been decided yet by the board, but that the move is needed to cut cost and move the county on "the right path."

Banker said she would present the information to the bar association's executive board at their next meeting in May.

Schuler may be reached at shoe@timesleaderonline.com