By WILLIAM SNOWDEN

wsnowden@thewakullanews.net

Facing a state mandate to add another courtroom, county commissioners indicated they would move forward with plans for $2.5 million in improvements to the courthouse.

Commissioners expressed concern that they were, in effect, mortgaging the county's building fund for the next decade. But commissioners Lynn Artz and Mike Stewart indicated a hope that the building project might at least offer some work to local subcontractors and their crews.

A spokesperson for the construction firm Peter Brown & Associates stressed, at the commission meeting on Monday, March 1, that the firm would make the effort to reach out to local builders to help them bid for work on the project.

Chairman Howard Kessler said he hoped the project would come in for less than the anticipated price. And he pressed for the final approval to come back before the board, rather than for the board to go ahead and give approval for him to sign loan documents.

The county has about $400,000 of funds on hand for the work, and will borrow $2.2 million against its $30 court facility surcharge and one-cent sales tax.

The anticipated cost of the project is more than $2.6 million for the first phase of construction.

Clerk of Courts Brent Thurmond, who has spearheaded the renovation effort, told the board that remodeling the old building would certainly be cheaper than building a new one.

Thurmond anticipated it would cost $250,000 just to demolish the courthouse, then cost about $9 million to build one of the same size. A larger one, as anticipated in the renovations, would cost upwards of $12 million, Thurmond said.

The board also approved, anticipating funding through a grant, of an exterior elevation scheme that calls for replacing the courthouse's old sloped metal roof system with one that restores the building's art deco architecture.

Besides being cheaper than other alternatives, County Administrator Ben Pingree told the board that bringing back the courthouse's old look may benefit the county in seeking historic preservation grants.

The courthouse was built in 1948. There was an addition to the building in the late 1980s including a third story, which obviously altered the building's roof.