COEUR d'ALENE - The Kootenai County commissioners are gathering information as they consider asking voters whether to borrow money for construction of a building to house courtrooms and offices downtown.

Kootenai County Commissioner Dan Green said Friday the board has identified significant space issues at its downtown campus facilities.

The county's court system is taking up a huge amount of space, he said, and those services are going to continue growing.

"We have courts in four locations, which is not a good way to run an operation," Green said. "We've heard the Supreme Court is sending us another judge.

We have nowhere to put him."

With interest rates hanging near the bottom for the foreseeable future, Green said, now is a great time to consider voter-approved bonds for a building project downtown.

He said the county already has done a facilities master plan and reviewed space requirements for the downtown campus facilities.

"The facility master plan has a building that would include office space and new courtrooms," he said. "And it would be right here on this campus."

The next step, following the ongoing preliminary study, would be hiring an architect to draw up some plans.

With those plans, the county can go to a construction contractor and determine the cost of any project.

"Then we know, it's going to cost $20 million, or $25 (million) or $30 million," Green said. "Then we can re-engage with bond counsel and also the firm that would do the underwriting of the bond."

As for a timeline, Green said, "It could be, I think, four to five years from right now before people are actually moving into a building."

Green and Commissioner Jai Nelson met Friday with bond lawyers Nicholas Miller and Danielle Quade from the Boise-based law firm Hawley Troxell. The county hasn't hired the firm.

"These guys have an expertise in bonds that our own in-house staff doesn't have," Green said. "We've met already with a couple of firms on the financial side."