County will study attorney space crunch

Flathead County will spend $2,626 on a design study to see if space in the County Attorney’s Office can be reconfigured to give the staff more room.

Located on the second floor of the Flathead County Justice Center, the office houses 18 full-time employees — 10 attorneys, six office assistants, an office administrator and a crime victim advocate.

County Attorney Ed Corrigan told county commissioners on Tuesday be believes the design-study allocation is money well spent because his staff is “suffering mightily” due to a lack of space.

He expects to ask for another attorney and secretary within a year, and said that within the next few years the County Attorney’s Office likely will need more space for a growing staff.

There is budget approval to hire an attorney to replace Deputy County Attorney Jonathan Smith, who retired in April, but not for any new attorney positions.

The plan is to avoid splitting the office into two locations.

“It’s important to keep the group as a cohesive unit,” Corrigan said.

Architects Design Group of Kalispell said priorities of the project are to add two or three secretarial spaces, one or two attorney offices and increase storage. While the preferred option is to create more space within the existing office complex, there was preliminary discussion about an exterior addition to the south end of the Justice Center.

Storage may be moved to the basement.