KINGMAN - The Board of Supervisors may revisit their decision on the new location of the Moccasin Consolidated Court in the Arizona Strip in the near future.
The Virgin River Communities organization held a public meeting Oct. 29 to discuss the Board's decision and an effort to recall Moccasin Judge Mitchell Kalauli. The organization is pushing to put the new location of the court back on the Board's agenda for November or December.
It is also circulating a petition to recall Kalauli because he supported placing the new courthouse in the Cane Beds/Colorado City area instead of the Beaver Dam/Scenic area. The organization needs the signatures of 120 registered voters in the Arizona Strip area in order to put the recall on the ballot. They have until February to gather the signatures.
Clerk of the Board Barbara Bracken said she had not yet seen a request to put the item on the agenda, but the agenda will not be finalized until this week.
The Moccasin Court has been in need of a new home for several years. Late last year, Mohave Community College notified the Board that it would no longer lease land to the county for the Mohave County Sheriff, County Attorney and the state to have offices in the area. At that time, the Board decided to look for a parcel of land big enough to build a new courthouse and new offices for the Sheriff and the County Attorney.
In September, two property owners in the Arizona Strip area offered to donate land to the county to build a courthouse. The Black family donated 7.5 acres, a well and $50,000 to help build the new court in the Scenic area, near Interstate 15 in the far northwestern corner of the state.
The Adair family donated 5 acres of land south of Colorado City in the middle of the Arizona Strip. The court is currently located in Moccasin near the border between Mohave and Coconino counties.
The courts, including Kalauli, argued to have the new court built on the Adair property, saying the centralized location would make it easier for residents and employees.
Residents in the Beaver Dam and Scenic areas and Supervisor Buster Johnson argued that the court should be placed on the Black property because the recent growth in that area and the fact that most of the tickets handled by the court came from I-15.
In October, the Board accepted both donations and approved placing the court and Sheriff and County Attorney's offices on the Adair property.
