Dixon County in need of new courthouse and law enforcement center

PONCA, Nebraska (KCAU)– The Dixon County Courthouse was built in 1883, with an addition constructed in 1940. However, space issues and the age of the building have continued to caused problems for both residents and employees.

This May, a roughly $20 million bond will be presented to Dixon County residents. The bond would purchase five acres of land and construct a single floor law enforcement center and courthouse in Ponca, Nebraska.

Currently, city officials and police are working out of the original three-floor courthouse that has been standing for 140 years. The county sheriff said the building possesses a variety of problems for officers.

“Right now we have two cells, one holds eight inmates and one holds four inmates,” Dixon County Sheriff Tom Decker said. “In the new facility we [would have] two in a cell, so we would have six different cells and there would be some isolation cells. We’re kind of running out of space. Pretty much every wall has something stored against it.”

While space is an issue for all workers in the courthouse, the age of the building has begun to show, causing much worse problems.

“The courthouse has gotten mold in it,” Neil Blohm with the Dixon County Board of Supervisors said. “It was soaked up from the ground up, we had to dry it out, so the courthouse itself has mold in the basement. There’s a lot of water in the basement, we have four sub pumps in the basement that take the water out daily.”

“We’ve had leaky walls,” Sheriff Decker said. “This last rain storm, it ran down and ruined a few items in the sheriff’s office just from a leaky roof.”

Over the past two years, the county has spent $250,000 on repairs for the courthouse. Blohm said that if the bond fails, the building could get worse.

“Let’s say it gets put off and we do it another five years from now. What’s the cost going to be then?” Blohm said. “Or something major happens here at this building, maybe a wall caves in or something, I don’t know if that will ever happen but then they decide to make it. It’s just going to be that much more no matter how you look at it.”

Dixon County just needs a simple majority of voters to say yes for the bond to pass. Residents have until May 14 to turn in their mail-in ballots.

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