SAN FERNANDO : Errors, Haggling Delay Reopening of Courthouse
Reopening of the quake-damaged San Fernando courthouse will be delayed by about a year because of a miscalculation over repairs and bureaucratic haggling among insurance companies and the government agencies overseeing reconstruction, according to county officials.
The facility had originally been scheduled to reopen in April. Instead, the building that houses the North Valley branches of Superior and Municipal courts is not expected to hold court again until next spring.
County officials are hedging on an exact reopening date. Several scheduled completion dates have already been missed because of arguments over construction costs among Los Angeles County, its underwriters, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state Office of Emergency Services.
“If you’ve dealt with an insurance company before, well, magnify it by about 5,000 times and you’ll know what we’re going through,” said Carol Kindler, assistant division chief for the county chief administrative officer.
The courthouse is the largest county facility in the Valley still closed by Northridge earthquake damage.
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