Morgan County Courthouse getting $11M renovation

By Erica Smith

For the Enquirer

The Morgan County Commission has accepted a bid for $11.3 million for courthouse renovations funded with American Rescue Plan Act money as well as up to another $1.5 million from the commission’s budget.

The renovations include a new waiting room for the license tag office, a new waiting room for the courtrooms, a new HVAC system, and making more bathrooms handicap accessible.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the commission approved acceptance of the “lowest most responsive” bid of about $11.3 million for courthouse renovations.

“We didn’t get to do all the things we wanted to do. We wanted to do all the lights and the ceiling tiles, but it came in about $2 million more than we wanted to spend,” said Morgan County Commission Chairman Ray Long. “So, we’re hoping that somewhere down the line that there’ll be some more grants that will come around. … Right now, we don’t see that happening.” Long said the new waiting rooms will be beneficial to county residents.

“People deserve a place to sit when they come,” he said. “It’s hard to stand in line to buy a tag when you have to bring your kids with you. Or even at court – when you come to court, it’s hard to stand out in the hall and make little Johnny and little Suzie be quiet. So, if we have a waiting room for them to go to, it just helps our citizens.” The waiting room for the license tag office will be on the second floor, and Long said it is expected to have about 40 to 45 seats.

“We’ll move security out farther and have the waiting room right there,” he said, which will require reinforcement of the concrete.

The waiting room for the courtrooms will be on the third floor, and Long said it is expected to have about 25 to 30 seats.

“We have a balcony already right there on the third floor, a big, open space that nobody uses,” he said. “When we were looking at renovating, we said, ‘Why don’t we use that space?’ So, we’re going to box that in and with windows. … We’ll be using that area that’s just been sitting there for years with nobody using it as a waiting room for the courts.” District 2 Commissioner Randy Vest said the waiting rooms will make a huge impact.

“We have such an influx of people coming in on certain days,” he said. “So, having that waiting room will be huge; people won’t have to stand in line. We can give them a place they can sit down and be convenient. It’ll just make a huge difference in the operation of both those departments.” The courthouse’s current heating and cooling system was installed in 1973.

“The one that’s there now is original, and we’ve been babysitting that thing and nursing it along for years, making repairs on it, keeping it going. Through COVID-19 it really showed us the deficiencies within itself,” Vest said. “A new HVAC system will allow us to control the air between the offices and between floors, which will be huge in helping to control the environment, infectious type diseases, things of that nature.” Long said they will not have to replace all of the components of the HVAC system.

“We won’t have to replace the duct work in here because our maintenance people keep the filters changed and do all that,” he said. “So, when they inspected those, they actually were in great shape. But it’s the chiller and the boiler and all that down in the basement, the controls. It’s hard to control each floor right now. It’ll just be a modernized system.” The restrooms will be upgraded to be more handi-cap accessible, Long said.

He said the bid came in a little higher than he had expected. The county is going to use American Rescue Plan Act funds for most of the cost.

“In this original bid, we’ll have to use about $1.5 (million) of the general fund reserve to go with it,” Long said. “There’s value engineering that allows us to negotiate with the contractor on the different items. So, we’re going to try and negotiate with them on the bathrooms and not do all of them. If we can get that down to where we want to, then we’ll only need about $1.1 million or something out of reserves.” The courthouse renovations will exhaust the county’s ARPA funds, Long said, which is why they will have to spend some of the county’s funds.

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the commission approved putting out to bid carpet installation to replace most of the carpet in the courthouse, a project for which they had previously designated ARPA funds.

“Some of it’s been here 20, 25 years, so it needs replacing,” Long said. “We just need to go ahead and get it bid out because it’s ARPA funds, and it has to be committed before December of 2024. We won’t actually install any new carpet as long as they’re working on the building here.” Federal ARPA funds were provided to governmental entities to aid in public health and economic recovery from COVID. Long said all ARPA funds must be committed by December 2024 and any funds that are left over by December 2026 must be given back to the federal government.