Courthouse Restoration Efforts to Continue
By a vote of 3 to 1 (Schafer opposed, Bednar abstaining), the Glasscock County Commissioners’ Court on March 15 agreed to update and resubmit its application for a grant to finance historic restoration of the county courthouse and old jail. The plan will keep alive the county’s efforts to get state funding for the restoration project. Commissioner Marck Schafer voted against continuing the application, saying the county’s money could be better spent.
When the application and master plan were originally submitted in 2000, the county’s master plan was approved, but the work was not funded because the state didn’t allocate enough money for all the courthouses needing restoration. Historic Architect Stan Klein told the court if the county had kept reapplying after the 2000 effort, the project would probably have been funded by now. Klein works with five courthouse restoration efforts and thinks more state funding for the projects statewide is likely.
Klein said the county can still use its original master plan, but the application needs updating and refining, and cost projections need to be adjusted for inflation (3 percent per year) before being resubmitted. He said the county’s 15 percent share of the total project will be approximately $245,000.
Klein said the county did the right thing to go ahead with roofing, which was needed to preserve the building, and installing a metal roof ($23,000), which is similar to the original in appearance. Klein said he thinks the historical commission will pay for part of the roof’s cost. A more historically accurate roof was estimated at $54,000.
In related concerns, commissioners discussed enlarging the clerk’s office, which they agree is inevitable. In the historic restoration master plan, the current county treasurer’s office would become a records room for the clerk’s office and the treasurer’s office would move into the old jail building. Klein said the county will have to work with the historical commission and get their approval on any work that is done to the courthouse at all, so the county might as well try to get some of the historical commission’s money.