Running the new Haywood County justice center will cost taxpayers an additional $500,000 a year, including extra maintenance staff, bailiffs, security guards, utilities and general upkeep, Haywood County commissioners learned this week.

The cost of operating the new 90,000-square-foot, $18 million justice center nearing completion in Waynesville was a source of contention during the controversy over the building. Opponents who came to call the justice center the “Taj Mahal of Justice” due to the size and scope of the building, railed against county leadership at the time to provide cost estimates of additional staff, utilities and maintenance to run the building.

The figures presented to the county commissioners this week were the first concrete cost estimates shared publicly by county administration since planning for the new justice center commenced six years ago.

The figures were presented in the form of a budget amendment allocating an additional $125,000 to cover operating costs of the justice center for the current fiscal year. The justice center is slated to open in late March or early April. The budget allocation will cover costs through the end of the current fiscal year June 30.

In addition to about $10,000 a month for utilities and janitorial equipment like vacuums and floor buffers, the extra allocation will pay for three maintenance staff and three extra deputies through the end of the fiscal year.

Sheriff Tom Alexander said he will ultimately need more than three deputies to run the center, which will require metal detector operators, bailiffs for five courtrooms, a monitor for the central control and surveillance center, and roaming security guards. He currently has two full-time and one part-time deputy who serve as bailiffs.

“Eight will do it if no one ever wants to take vacation or ever call in sick,” Alexander told the commissioners.

— By Becky Johnson