(October 7, 2008)

KINGSVILLE--In Kleberg County, there's a movement to restore and renovate the historic courthouse in Kingsville. The county is getting help from a drug forfeiture fund from the district attorney's office, which is seized drug money

Drug forfeiture funds are usually used to buy better equipment and improve policing, but the DA is setting aside some money to return the courthouse to how it once looked nearly one century ago.

The Kleberg County Courthouse is a historic building. For some, like 95 year old Ben Wilson, whose father helped get the building built nearly 100 years ago, he wants to see the courthouse restored.

"It was a real fine building when I went through it as a kid and it could be restored, of course," said Wilson. 

County leaders will soon ask the Texas Historical Commission to renovate the building. The biggest priority for them is to reopen the third floor, which is now shut down to the public.

"This area here it will be the way it was orginally," said Kleberg County Judge Pete De La Garza. "You can see all the way to the top. You are going to have the galley right there and they are going to restore every bit of it."

Restoring this courthouse is a big issue in Kleberg County and now they're getting some help from an unusual source. It's the Kleberg County District Attorney's Drug Forfeiture Fund and they're setting aside $200,000 for maintenance and repair of this historic building.

"In this case, how better to use it than maintenance and repair in a building we are already using and an office we are already using that will save taxpayer money," said John Hubert, who is the Kleberg County District Attorney. 

While it's a different source of funding, it's something that will help Kleberg County get the job done and restore the history of the courthouse.

"Because they (historicans) want future generations to know this is what it was like back in 1913," Judge Pete De La Garza said.

--Manuel De La Rosa, Area 3 News, mdelarosa@kiiitv.com