County looking to reduce costs
No one argues that the boiler system at the Warren County Courthouse needs some work.
An initial total replacement estimate came in at $600,000.
The real cost of the work is shaping up to be much, much less than that.
During Monday’s work session, Warren County Commissioner Jeff Eggleston said that county officials have “whittled down our expected cost… to well under $100,000.”
Eggleston said that the county is also looking to reduce costs further once an engineer can be brought in to craft detailed specifications for the project.
He told the other commissioners that the reduced cost of the project has “kind of nullified” pursuing a state grant that the commissioners approved a resolution for last week. That grant, from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, is often used for exterior renovations and “was going to be a stretch to get… to begin with.”
But they wouldn’t give up on the grant.
Eggleston proposed, once an engineer is retained, to have that person examine situations with the roof, exterior paint and gutter system with the goal of putting together a package to push for the grant funds “to do a complete fix for the roof and for a lot of the other issues we’ve got around the courthouse.”
“It sounds like a better way to handle it,” he added. “Then we can also use some of the other resources we have to push that grant through next year. If we were to apply for that grant this year, the idea of going back and getting a larger sum next year is really difficult.”
And that flexibility is a result of the reduced estimates on the heating system.
“This is really going to cost so much less than we thought it would,” Eggleston said.
The last major courthouse renovation was roughly 20 years ago.
As for when the engineer could be brought on board, a request for proposals (RFP) must be prepared first that will outline each firm’s credentials and rates and also describe the scope of work.
Eggleston said a draft RFP should be ready this week for commissioner review and speculated that a firm could be selected in two to three weeks.
He said that would be important so work on the boiler could be undertaken as soon as possible and be completed by next winter.
“One of the nice things that has happened since (we) started this whole discussion,” Eggleston said, is “we’ve had a lot of good contacts from the community.”
People have offered to come in and evaluate the boiler system at no cost.
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