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Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Ind. Courts - "New Randolph commissioners want to change courthouse plans -- again"
The Randolph County Courthouse is in the news yet again -- here is a long list of earlier ILB entries. Today Joy Leiker reports in the Muncie Star-Press:
WINCHESTER -- The two newest members of the Randolph County Board of Commissioners are keeping their campaign promises, and stopping a multi-million-dollar plan to build an annex on the south side of the courthouse.Commissioners Troy Prescott and Noel "Bud" Carpenter want to scale back the much-debated project and renovate the existing 19th-century courthouse. Neither man supports the annex construction, and now favor adding only a tower to house an elevator and stairs as required by current accessibility laws.
At the same time, the two also have asked the newly-appointed county attorney, Meeks Cockerill, to review the contracts with the existing architects, Martin Riley of Fort Wayne, and construction project manager Lester "Spike" Shepler of Noblesville. Prescott and Carpenter want to end dealings with both companies. Shepler was hired in April 2008 (to replace a previously fired construction manager), while the Martin Riley firm was hired in December 2004.
"I'm going to get rid of them, yeah," Prescott said. "All the drawings they've drawn up are useless," since the Martin Riley plans all center around the construction of an annex to house the courts, clerk and prosecutor. The plan was to transform their existing offices into more space for other county departments.
Prescott long has been a critic of the Fort Wayne architecture company. He blamed their design for roof problems at Baker Elementary School in Winchester when he was a member of the Randolph Central School Board.
"We wanted to stop the money," Carpenter said. "We felt this was not a time to go into debt."
That's an answer to a prayer for some, who insisted this largely agricultural county, with a population that's getting smaller with every Census count, couldn't afford a $10.7 million construction project that would require millions more in bond payments for another 28 years.
And to those who think this is just another delay in a project that since 2004 already has brought worldwide, and sometimes unwanted fame, to the county, Prescott and Carpenter said it's not.
"We're moving. We're going to do this," Prescott said.
Fellow Commissioner Kathy Beumer, the lone holdover from last year's board, said though she has favored the previous plans, and still thinks the county is skirting long-term security and storage needs, she won't withhold her support of a less-expensive option, as long as the renovation of the courthouse remains central.
"The important thing is that we save the courthouse. The only thing that I'm going to object to is if I feel like it's not being done in a proper way," Beumer said.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 13, 2009 09:35 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts