Thursday, May 03, 2012

by Gregory Tejeda

CHICAGO | The Cook County courthouse in Markham that serves the south suburbs will cease to have weekend bond court sessions in June.

The Cook County Sheriff's Department said Thursday that beginning Saturday, suburban courthouses would close on weekends as part of a plan to save county government about $1.6 million per year.

But county officials are phasing in the closing of the suburban courthouses during coming weeks. June 9 will be the first weekend date the Markham courthouse will not be open for court hearings.

Beginning on that same date, police departments in the south and southwestern suburbs will take their inmates to the courthouse, where they will be transported by sheriff's police to the Criminal Courts building, 2650 S. California Ave., where bond hearings will be held.

Sheriff Thomas Dart and his staff met with suburban police departments, which had concerns about having to transport people all the way to the courthouse in the Little Village neighborhood on the near Southwest Side.