Rye could lose more than $1.3 million in annual state aid if it fails to fix long-standing safety and accessibility problems at its nearly century-old City Court building, retired Rye City Court Judge Joe Latwin warned in a column published Tuesday on MyRye.com.

The state aid at stake totaled $1,348,301 in fiscal year 2024, according to the city's 2026 Citizens Budget Report.

Latwin wrote that losing that revenue would force a roughly 2.7% local tax increase.

The courthouse at 21 McCullough Place sits above the police station near the train station.

It was built during the Depression. The state first identified deficiencies there as early as 1990, with more formal findings in the mid-1990s, Latwin wrote.

Although Rye City Court is a state court, the city is responsible for providing an adequate building. If it does not, the state can withhold all state aid, Latwin wrote. He noted that the state had threatened to cut off aid to Schenectady over similar courthouse problems, and that Schenectady ultimately complied.

Repairs stalled at $2.5M–$3.2M

In the mid-2010s, Latwin wrote, he worked with the city's architect and Corporation Counsel to negotiate a deal in which the state would not require full compliance with certain requirements, such as separate holding cells for male, female and youth detainees.

The estimated cost for the agreed-upon work, which also included police station upgrades, was about $2.5 million. By the time the city was ready to commit, costs had risen to about $3.2 million.

Construction then stalled because there was no place for the court to operate during renovations. A proposal to use unused space on the second floor of City Hall went nowhere, Latwin wrote.

ADA violations and fire risk

The court occupies the building's second floor, and there is no elevator.

A wheelchair lift installed in the 1980s works only sporadically, Latwin wrote, and replacement parts are no longer available. When the lift is in use, it blocks the only public stairway between the courtroom and the street.

If the lift blocked the stairs during a fire, everyone in the courtroom would be trapped, Latwin wrote.

Without a working elevator, judges who need to arraign a person in a wheelchair must go down to the police department's public lobby, raising security concerns.

No secure holding area, no jury room

There is no secure place to hold prisoners awaiting court appearances on the second floor.

Latwin described zip-tying heavy courtroom chairs together to prevent them from being used as weapons, because prisoners had been sitting on folding chairs outside the courtroom with no bars on the walls for handcuffs.

Transporting detainees from holding cells in the police station below requires climbing a steep staircase in leg irons and handcuffs.

Latwin wrote that he once watched a man in restraints make that climb, noting the escorting officer could have been crushed in a fall.

The building also lacks a jury room, private spaces for attorney-client conversations and separate changing rooms for male and female court officers.

During jury trials, deliberations happen in the courtroom itself, blocking all other proceedings.

Little progress, growing pressure

Latwin wrote that the state is regularly asking about Rye's progress on courthouse upgrades and that there has been "little evident progress."

The city's response to the state's inquiries and any current renovation timeline are not addressed in Latwin's column. Latwin retired from Rye City Court in December 2022 after 13 years on the bench.