West View District Court Plans Move to Center Avenue

A new lease has been partially executed to relocate Judge Richard Opiela's in West View from 439 Perry Highway to 623 Center Ave., according to court officials.  

The court has been located on the second floor of the for the past 33 years.

"We're always thinking of the issue of maintaining the appearance of the independence of the judicial branch," said Lisa Herbert, deputy court administrator for Allegheny County. 

Allegheny County has been leasing the second floor from West View Borough, paying $1,535.25 a month. The borough planned to increase the rent to $2,300 Jan. 1.  

The court will pay $2,822.29 a month to lease the 2,500-square-foot space at the new location, which is owned by Raymond and April Caldwell of Jacks Run Road, according to county records. 

Herbert said the move would make the court more accessible, with first-floor access and additional parking, including both dedicated parking in front of the building and public parking spaces along Center Avenue. 

The new space will also provide room for a holding cell for defendants brought from the Allegheny County Jail, a security feature not available at the West View Borough building. 

Paperwork for the lease is still being completed and the timeline for the move is still up in the air, Herbert said. 

"We're looking at some time in the late winter or spring," she said. 

Opiela said Thursday his office was business as usual. Plans for the move won't be made until he gets the official notice, he said. 

"Seeing is believing," he said. 

West View Mayor John R. Henry said there were both advantages and disadvantages to the decision by the court administrators. 

While on one hand, the borough is losing a long-time tenant, on the other, the court's location posed some problems, such as parking issues, he said. 

"The good thing for the borough is that the district court will still be located in the borough," he said. 

The district court is part of the 5th Judicial District of the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas and adjudicates Ross and West View traffic citations, civil disputes, arrests in misdemeanor and felony cases, issues search warrants, and presides over local ordinance violations. The judge also performs wedding ceremonies.