The warmer days ahead are helping one project move along at the Morgan County Courthouse, while work on another major project will have to wait.
Jacksonville Art Glass workers were out in full force the last two days at the Morgan County Courthouse after weeks of frigid temperatures and precipitation had ground work on the courthouse’s windows to a halt.
Morgan County Commissioner Chair Mike Wankel says despite the delays, the commissioners are pleased with the progress of the work on the windows so far: “Naturally, we’re very happy with Jacksonville Art Glass – the quality of work we are receiving from them. There has been delays on their end due to the weather and rot and deterioration of items they are uncovering that was unexpected. However, we’re still pushing to get the project done. Along with that project, we have wrapped up our climate control work here in the courthouse. We have wrapped up that HVAC process while the windows are still being worked on.”
The windows are expected to be completed some time later in the Spring.
Wankel says that’s about the same time that the courthouse elevator work is supposed to start. He says that’s about 5 months behind their original planned schedule: “We’re a little disappointed. We were hopeful that the elevator project would be getting started about this time of the year. We’ve been informed that the company will not start that until maybe May. It’s unfortunate because we are experiencing weekly issues with our elevator. We’re not happy about it, but given that there is only a select few contractors that deal with elevators – and we’ve signed a contract with Kon-A to get that taken care of. You can push all you want, but when they have a workload that’s excessive, you have to wait. They are hopeful that they can get to us in May, and we’re looking forward to sooner than later.”
The work on the elevator will be done in phases, and a clearer timeline of completion will be known once Kon-A gets started on the renovation in May.
Wankel says the third major project that the commissioners are working on is at the County Annex building, which is still in a design phase. He says that a roof issue is currently being addressed but as far as further work at the annex is concerned, he says it’s to be decided.