After 14 months and $4.2 million, the Monroe County Courthouse reopened Oct. 10. The reopening comes long after original estimates predicted and with a much higher price tag.
In July 2011, Kevin Dogan, who was then interim Monroe County administrator, told The Ellettsville Journal the work was expected to last at least six months and would cost between $2 million and $3 million.
The issues being addressed were discovered during a remodeling effort in the county assessor’s office a few years before the courthouse was shut down in 2011. The floor was very weak. While it should have had the capacity to hold 4,000 pounds, it could only support 800. It was quickly learned that the weaknesses in the assessor’s office were not isolated.
“The remodeling work was then terminated and the assessor’s office was not moved back into the courthouse due to the structural weaknesses found in the floors of this part of the building,” Dogan said.
In 2010, the county hired an engineering firm to find out the extent of the structural deficiency in the floor.
“We had an engineering firm come in,” said Monroe County Commissioners President Mark Stoops. “They did more sampling, and then they drew up the structure that was going to be placed under the floors. At that time, we were shooting for the first and maybe the second floors, but we ended up having to go through and do all the floors in the courthouse. Also, originally, we were thinking we might be able to phase it.”
County officials intended to vacate portions of the courthouse, one at a time, to complete repairs but found the plan was unfeasible. The amount of work that had to be done to make the building safe was too great.
“In the end, it required actually vacating the courthouse and every system like that, all the wiring and plumbing and cabling for tech services, everything had to come out because the beams literally crisscrossed the ceiling, and they have to be tied to the concrete,” Stoops said.
All the offices housed within the courthouse were moved to the county government’s new property at the North Showers Building at 501 N. Morton St. Some of them would stay there even after the courthouse renovations were done.
Because the plumbing had to be replaced, the county thought it would be a good time to replace the dated equipment in the building – specifically, the boiler and chiller and all the respective piping. They made up two contracts for the job, one structural and one mechanical, and tried to bid them out.
“We were actually getting bids around $4 (million) to $5 million,” Stoops said.
When the bids came in too high for the county to accept, it decided to delay the renovations and rebid so that an acceptable price could be found. The delay lasted for a month and a half.
“We were able to save about $1 million,” Stoops noted. “In the end, it looks like the structural repair will come to $3.1 (million) to $3.2 million and then the mechanicals, I believe those came in at $1.1 million.”
After a bid was accepted and work had begun, there was an unexpected delay.
“We had a delay due to lead in the paint that cost an additional $120,000 because it had to be removed in a special manner,” Stoops said.
From then on, however, the only delays came as the crews fixed the floors and other miscellaneous items.
“Overall, it was more important – there were times where I think it could have been done faster – but we had room at Showers and we weren’t paying leasing fees, so I felt it was more important to do it right,” Stoops said.
The county spent another $150,000 earned from cable television contracts to retrofit the media room in the courthouse. It worked with Community Access Television Services at the Monroe County Public Library to install lighting, monitors, wiring and other equipment that the television network might need to broadcast from the courthouse.
A further $150,000 came from the historic fund to refinish the terrazzo floors, replace fluorescent lighting with historic lighting and to hire local woodworker Harold Jones to craft oak doors for the building.
All of this comes after a $384,000 renovation project to restore the courthouse dome in 2007.
Money for the courthouse renovations came from capital funds the county had been saving for several years. Further money was added to the savings when the county purchased the North Showers Building, including $1 million for the courthouse’s structural repairs.
“We knew it had to be done because you can’t have a structurally weak building in an earthquake zone,” Stoops said.
Offices that were previously in the courthouse but will stay in the North Showers Building permanently include the Public Works Department, also known as the Highway Department, the Planning Department, and the Building Department.
The county has also moved the Parks and Recreation Department and Information and Technology Services Department into the North Showers Building. The Information and Technology Services Department move comes as the county attempts to free up space in its health services building for the Futures Family Planning Clinic.
Originally published in Ellettsville Journal, 2012. Republished here for archival and portfolio purposes.