The Morgan County Commissioners approved two bills for renovation projects out of their remaining American Rescue Plan Act funds earlier this month, and another this past Monday.
Pay invoices totaling over $110,000 was approved to Henson-Robinson Construction for the Morgan County Courthouse HVAC system updates and the first payment to Con-A Elevator Company for initial work on renovating the courthouse’s elevator were paid out at the meeting on November 11th. A second amount to Henson-Robinson was paid out at the meeting this past Monday morning.
Commissioner Chairman Mike Wankel says that the HVAC project is now mostly complete with one more invoice to paid: “There’s maybe a few minor details as far as paint and touch up on the project here in the courthouse from the construction and assembly of the HVAC units. That’s moved along really well, and they are very close if not already finished with all of that.”
Wankel says that the elevator project will be started in earnest after January 1st but preliminary work had to be done in the meantime to the elevator shaft: “Actually, there is some HVAC work that Con-A was able to do in the upper elevator shaft in order to get that out of the way so it makes for a smoother transition when we have to put the elevator out of service after the first of the year. We are looking forward to that work being done for safety for our visitors at the courthouse along with the employees. We have had some issues with the elevator. It’s seen its life expectancy, so we are looking forward to seeing it replaced and having a well-maintained elevator.”
Wankel says the third project at the courthouse, updating the windows, has run into a bit of a snag. He says Jacksonville Art Glass is currently dealing with some rotten window frames and Mother Nature: “They’ve had some setbacks on the project with severe wood deterioration that they were not anticipating. I think they were hopeful to have it done by the end of the year. We’ve heard from them about the schedule, and it looks like it will trickle into the Spring. It depends on how they can get along with weather outside in the elements. We look for them to wrap that project up after the first of the year.”
Wankel says that he and the commissioners have enjoyed watching all of the progress of the road construction along West State Street. He says that they have not received a recent update on the street project, but he anticipates traffic flow at the courthouse will start being effected in the Spring as the street work moves further east towards Downtown Jacksonville.