Fayette's Juvenile Court is taking a page from the school board's book in dealing with overcrowding.

To help the court increase its available space for youths and families waiting for service, the county is buying a 24- by 44-foot portable office unit at a cost of about $25,000.

"It is an interim solution to the problem," said county administrator Billy Beckett in presenting the purchase to county commissioners last week.

Beckett had researched the idea of leasing a unit for the Juvenile Court and another for the county's Magistrate Court, but three years of leasing will cost as much as buying the unit, he said.

The Magistrate Court has opted not to use the portable unit, Beckett said.

The unit will provide space for about 50 people, he added.

For a more permanent solution, county officials are studying plans to build a new three-story, 149,000-sq. ft. judicial complex housing juvenile, superior, state and magistrate courts and attendant offices.

That plan is taking a back seat to plans for a new jail, though officials may decide to fund both projects at the same time, depending upon how they decide to raise the money.

Either way, it will be three to five years before the facilities will be built, official say.

Commissioners last week also approved spending $89,799 to buy a remittance processor for the water department.

The device will read payments, encode and endorse checks, sort payments and prove and capture data, saving department workers the four to six hours per day required to sort and deal with mail by hand.