in session

ANDREW WELLNER/Frontiersman

Palmer’s Clerk of Courts Teresa Shaw cuts a ribbon to celebrate the courthouse’s expansion Wednesday. The Palmer Courthouse personnel held an open house and ribbon cutting to show off their new addition. The three new courtrooms have been open for some time but the jury assembly room, grand jury chambers and the causeway linking the new addition to the old Valley Hospital building are relatively new additions. Here are some tidbits gleaned from the opening.

Anchorage Judge Sharon Gleason’s first Palmer Courthouse experience: Filling in on a trial stemming from a cow vs. commuter car accident many years ago. After the trial had begun, an ice storm made driving to work treacherous but all 14 jurors made it. “This really would not have happened in Anchorage,” Gleason recalled thinking at the time.

The story of the artwork: Vibrant prints of Alaskan and Palmer scenery in shiny frames adorn the walls of the jury assembly room. They’re on loan from Palmer artist Shane Lamb. Judges decorate their courtrooms as they see fit — anything from old pencil drawings to photographs of lounging polar bears. But District Court Judge John Wolfe’s courtroom’s main decoration is a somewhat gray painting of a dead songbird. His clerk said it was a “2 percent art” — meaning he got it from whatever state agency distributes the works to decorate public buildings.

Supreme Court Justice Morgan Christen on the expansion: She said it was her unfortunate duty, back when she was presiding judge of the Third Judicial District, to ask that everyone delay for a year plans to add just one courtroom in order that they could instead build three. She was pleased with the results. “When I’ve had some sort of rough days, I’ve come out here to sort of visit it and make myself feel better,” she joked.

State Sen. Linda Menard honoring Superior Court Judge Beverly Cutler: Menard cited Cutler, who is set to retire in September, as Alaska’s first female Superior Court Judge. She noted how Cutler started her Palmer career housed in a cramped, leaky building and, 32 years later , will leave it in fine condition. “Judge Cutler did all this while raising four children,” Menard said. Though Cutler will remain, for a time, a semi-regular presence at the courthouse, filling in when needed, “ultimately her potato farm and retirement beckon.”