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County seeks architect

Thu, 01/04/2018 - 6:10 pm

An update on courthouse renovations was given by Courthouse Maintenance Supervisor Danny Nash, who announced his retirement in March during a special meeting Dec. 27.

Nash said work on the tax office is nearly complete with work on the county clerk’s office and county courtroom set next.

Nash gave an update on the boiler room and leaks in the line. He said they were waiting for someone to come and excavate and look about 6-8 feet deep to find the leak as preliminary inspection could not locate a leak.

Nash said the boiler was replaced about 15 years ago but the lines are the original lines when the courthouse was built. He said some of the lines are still good but others are simply crumbling when touched. He said the boiler itself is not a good source of heating as one room has people sweating and one has people freezing on the same floor.

Nash said the windows the courthouse presently has are not designed for air conditioning and were installed when the courthouse was opened and are designed to simply be opened to let air in.

The court is looking for an architect to oversee work on the boiler room and outside repairs to the courthouse with a date of Jan. 8 to pick an architect. Judge Mitchell Davenport said picking an architect could be difficult as the Texas Historical Commission needs to be involved with any decision as the courthouse is a historical building.

“We want to help improve our function to keep us in this building,” Davenport said. “The architect will be told our scope of work and what we want to have done. The court will have the final say on the cost. Because of the age of the building, we may have to pay more to keep the building historical.”

Once an architect is chosen, a workshop will be held to see what the county can afford. 

“All we’re going to be doing on (Jan.8) is selecting an architect to oversee the process,” Davenport said in a Wednesday interview. “After that, there’s going to be about a one or two month process where we sit down with the architect and say we need to find out what A,B,C,D are going to cost. The architect will then conduct studies and do some ground work and then come back and give us an idea of what they will cost.”

To read the complete article, see the Jan. 5 edition of the Herald-Gazette.