Solicitor pumps brakes on plans for new drug court facility

Plans to build a $1.2 million facility for drug and mental health courts in downtown Conway hit a roadblock recently when the solicitor learned his proposal faced some legal hurdles.

“We have kind of had to put that on hold,” Fifteenth Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson said. “We might have to do something else. There’s a ton of [regulations] that deal with county government and how they deal with other agencies.”

Drug and mental health courts are currently run out of an old tobacco warehouse on the corner of Laurel Street and Second Avenue. The nearly 11,000-square-foot office houses the solicitor’s pretrial intervention, juvenile arbitration and alcohol education programs, among others. More than 2,000 people participated in those initiatives last year.

Richardson said his staff needs more space and the aging warehouse has fallen into disrepair. Instead of spending about $800,000 on renovations, he’d rather build a new facility.

The solicitor had hoped to build such a center in the overflow parking lot across Second Avenue from the Horry County Government and Justice Center. Last month, Horry County Council even authorized administrator Chris Eldridge to begin negotiating a 20-year lease agreement with Richardson.

But the solicitor said he wasn’t aware of how great the regulatory challenges would be. The process was complicated because the property would have been held by a limited liability company set up to manage any land or buildings used by the solicitor’s intervention programs, which are primarily supported with fees from participants.

“It was different,” Eldridge said.

Had the deal gone through and the solicitor’s office left the building, the property would have been turned over to the county.

Richardson said his concerns about the state’s land transfer policies led him to ask county leaders to stop the negotiations.

“Let’s hold off,” he said. “I appreciate them trying to push it through, but I don’t want to cause any problems with this building.”

County attorney Arrigo Carotti said the county is still open to working with Richardson on finding a solution.

While his original idea didn’t pan out as he’d hoped, Richardson said renovating the warehouse isn’t an option.

“We’re not going to do that,” he said of staying. “We would be better off renting a secondary location.”

This story was originally published March 1, 2016 at 7:46 PM with the headline "Solicitor pumps brakes on plans for new drug court facility."