With cake and a ribbon cutting, officials with the Marion County judicial system celebrated Monday the official opening of the county’s newest justice court.

The new justice court, located at 4660 Portland Road NE in the Hayesville Shopping Center, now replaces the prior courts in Woodburn and East Salem.

The Marion County Justice Court is responsible for minor traffic offenses, small civil claims and violations of county ordinances.

By consolidating three courts into one, the county hopes to achieve two goals, said communications manager Jolene Kelley.

“It’s partly for convenience, but it does save money,” she said. “I’d have to double-check the figure but it’s about a $200,000 savings to the county.”

Additionally, the new location is along a transit line and close to the freeway, Kelley said. Not all of the prior locations could say the same.

Officials have been planning the move for a little more than a year — finding the location, signing the lease, planning the new space and fixing up the old spot in a shopping mall into a functioning court.

County commissioners and the new presiding Justice of the Peace, Janice Zyryanoff, held a ceremonial ribbon cutting in the new courtroom Monday afternoon to dedicate the new space. Arraignments were scheduled to begin the very next day.

Zyryanoff thanked a number of county officials and commissioners for their efforts to make the new court a reality.

“We’re turning a page in the history of the Marion County justice court,” she said. “With the new court has come new ideas.”

One of those ideas, she said, is to keep the court open longer hours on certain days to make the court more convenient to the public. On Tuesday evenings, the court will remain open until 9 p.m.

“That was my attempt to make the justice court more accessible,” Zyryanoff said.

There was an added bonus in the process of moving of particular interest to history buffs. In the process of moving records from the three former courts to the new one, staffers discovered several log books and court records dating back decades. The oldest one bore dates back in the 1880s.

For reference, Zyryanoff said, the first record of an elected justice of the peace in this area was Joseph Gervais in 1841.

During Monday’s ceremony, those records were placed in the lobby for visitors to examine before being archived.

Traffic impact

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office is reporting anticipated delays near the new justice court at 4660 Portland Road NE. With the new court’s first official day on Tuesday comes 800 scheduled arraignments between 1:30 and 9:30 p.m. The Sheriff’s Office will be on scene to help control traffic in the area, as heavy traffic volumes are expected. Motorists are asked to seek alternative routes.