Carbon County is preparing to create a temporary second courtroom that will be large enough to hold trials while maintaining proper distancing during the pandemic.

On Thursday, the commissioners ratified a proposal from Person Agency for an appraisal of rental property space at 525 Iron St., Lehighton. The cost of the appraisal is $650.

Commissioner Rocky Ahner said the approximate 4,000-square-foot site would be turned into a temporary courtroom to help the courts, which currently has a backlog of 700 cases due to the pandemic. Courtrooms 2 and 3 in the courthouse are both too small to hold trials due to current distancing requirements.

Gregory Armstrong, district court administrator, said that with the pandemic and current CDC requirements, there are just no rooms large enough in the courthouse to hold additional trials.

Courtroom 1 has been altered to provide the necessary spacing between jury members, attorneys, the judge, witnesses and defendant and has been used frequently since reopening.

To compound the problem, juries cannot be selected as they normally had been and trials are delayed when jury selections must take place all in the same room.

“Scheduling two or three concurrent trials is not possible in the courthouse at present,” he said. “Renting the Lehighton space allows the court to hold two trials at the same time instead of postponing trials further.” Armstrong noted that the 700 case backlog reflects the court’s inventory of criminal cases within the system at this time. Some will result in jury trials.

Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein said that the county will use suites 101 and 104 inside the building, while St. Luke’s will continue to occupy the other two suites.

Ahner noted that the final cost of the rental will be determined by the pandemic but added that the cost will be covered under a COVID-19 grant.

“The existence of the rental would hinge on the length of the pandemic and CDC social distancing regulations,” Ahner wrote after the meeting.

The board said that it is hoping to have this new courtroom up and running by the next jury selection date on Dec. 7.

Ahner said that jury selection will still take place at the courthouse in Jim Thorpe and any jurors selected for the temporary courtroom would then go to the new location for the trial to start the same day.