Tagged: Tulsa County Courthouse

Bids are opened for a remodel of the jury assembly room at the Tulsa County Courthouse. It’s the next step now that security entrances have been upgraded. The room where potential jurors assemble in the basement of the courthouse is too small and crowded for today’s needs. Mark Liotta is County Commission Chief Deputy, and he says sometimes potential jurors spend 3,4, or 5 days waiting in the cramped area to be called for a trial.

Work on upgrading Tulsa Courthouse security entrances is on schedule.

Long lines and long waits should be greatly reduced once improvements to entrances on the North and East of the courthouse are complete. The project is on schedule according to Chief County Commission Deputy Mark Liotta, which means the work should be finished by the end of the year.

The improved entrances can handle two lines of pedestrian traffic at security stations instead of only one line as is the case now. Liotta says it should speed up flow into and out of the courthouse.

More construction will slow pedestrian and vehicle traffic on Denver Avenue in downtown Tulsa. Crews are pouring piers for the entryway upgrade on the east side of the Tulsa County Courthouse. Project Manager Kirby Crowe says the sidewalk and one lane of Denver will be closed all week. The outside southbound lane is blocked off to vehicles. Crowe says it’s a good time to do the noisy work of pouring piers because there are no jury trials at the courthouse this week, so it won’t be too disruptive to court business.

Work on improving Tulsa Courthouse entrances hits a snag. While digging in front of the County Courthouse on Denver Avenue, construction crews discovered an old diesel fuel tank that everyone had forgotten was there. County Commission Chief Deputy Mark Liotta says the Department of Environmental Quality will have to inspect the tank and determine any issues that need to be fixed before it can be removed.

Deputies who helped bring down a courthouse plaza shooter are honored for their ‘heroic’ actions. At a ceremony at the courthouse, Undersheriff Tim Albin read a description of the events outside the Tulsa County courthouse on March 7th. In responding to reports of a shooter on the plaza, Deputy David Fortenberry was wounded in both hands. He received a purple heart and medal of valor at the ceremony.

A contract is delayed on upgrading security entrances at the Tulsa County Courthouse. The Sheriff says parts of the plan are being re-thought because of the shootout earlier this month. Sheriff Glanz says they’re looking at bullet resistant glass for the renovated entrance on the plaza side of the courthouse and the new entrance on the east side.

Glanz says the new entrances, depending on the cost, would have bullet resistant or bullet proof glass installed.