Courthouse project may yield more benefits

A restoration project for the 1890 Donley County Courthouse may give the county more benefit that was initially expected, according to Judge John Howard.

The county received a grant of about $2.6 million last year, and the county was to provide a match of about $458,000 to conserve some deteriorating sandstone and repair a brick wall on the building’s south face. Architects began exploring the project further last June and have been working with the contractor since that time and have determined that the work will take less money than expected.

“The grant funds will be reduced to $1.53 million,” Howard said, “and the county’s match will only have to put in about $276,000 for match.”

That leaves money left over in funds that have been saved and reserved for courthouse preservation, and Howard says the county is looking at ways to do more work that what the grant could have ever covered.

“We’re looking at putting some acoustical panels on the walls of the district courtroom to improve the sound,” Howard said. “We want to enlarge the jury box, and we’re considering finishing off the third floor.”

The judge says the county should be able to make its match and do the additional work for about $447,000, which is more than $10,000 less than the county would have been out originally.

The jury box has been a tight squeeze for 12 people since it was restored in 2003, and Howard say the architect has some ideas about how to expand that.

The 2003 restoration rebuild the third floor of the building after it was razed in the 1930s, but there wasn’t enough money in that project to finish the space for functional use.

“The walls are done, and there is electricity run,” Howard said. “It wouldn’t take much to finish that space.”