Courthouse painting almost completed

Courthouse painting almost completed

Renovations continue inside and out at historic building

news@theeveningtimes.com

Painting at the county courthouse should wrap up some time this week, and the county is already planning on moving upstairs to start another round of renovations.

Crews have been applying a fresh new coat of paint to the exterior of the historic structure – its first in about 30 years. The paint job is just the latest in a series of ongoing renovations.

“They should be finished with that as early as this week,” said County Judge Woody Wheeless.

The county got a $96,000 grant to paint the outside and to replace all of the windows, and has spent about $250,000 over the past five years sprucing up the inside which was starting to show its age.

The courthouse was built in 1911 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. All of the first floor offices and the Quorum Court chamber have been renovated. The county also installed a new heating and air system which is saving thousands on its energy bill.

Wheeless said now that the downstairs has been completely remodeled, they plan to move upstairs and do some renovation work on the two court rooms.

“We’re taking bids which are due by June 11 to renovate those spaces,” Wheeless said. “That’s something we could potentially turn loose sometime this month.”

The older, more historic court room will get a new coat of paint, new ceiling tiles, carpeting, chairs, and LED lighting.

The county is also doing an optional bid to determine the cost of re-sanding all of the original woodwork as well.

The newer courtroom will also get new ceiling tiles, a fresh coat of paint, the carpets shampooed, and LED lighting.

Wheeless said they will do each courtroom separately so as to minimize the disruptions.

The biggest project upstairs though, and the one they will be starting on immediately, is a complete renovation of the two bathrooms.

“We’re going to start work on those immediately,” Wheeless said. “We’re not going to have both projects going on at once. We’re going to wait until one set of bathrooms is completed before we start the second one. We don’t want to have all the bathrooms shut down all at one time.”

The juror’s room in the second court room will also get a fresh coat of paint and a bathroom update as well.

Wheeless said the upstairs offices aren’t in need of immediate renovation.

“They’re not in as bad a shape as everything else,” Wheeless said. “But that will be something we do at some point.”

The county also recently accepted a bid for $166,000 to replace the windows on the east side of the county office building which is also getting a much needed makeover.

Plans are to replace the entire exterior façade of that building starting on the east side then move to the west side in 2019. The county will them move inside and renovate the upstairs room currently being utilized by 4H and move the juvenile department there. The cost to renovate the outside is about $300,000.

By Mark Randall