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Capital improvement talks, new jail elevator, parking among topics

Commissioner Jeff Eggleston on Monday updated the rest of the board about a few capital projects at the Warren County Courthouse.

Eggleston said that he with with R.W. Larson, a local architectural firm, regarding elevator projects.

“They had put together architectural drawings,” he said, with the next step being digitizing those drawings to share with the rest of the board.

He’s recommending that R.W. Larson “go ahead and bid for (the) jail elevator” for work to commence next spring.

“The jail elevator needs replaced,” he said, with cost estimates falling in line with previous estimates.

He further said the board would need to further discuss one of the courthouse elevators which is also in need of new electronics as part of a general rehabilitation.

Eggleston then shifted discussion to the courthouse parking lot.

He said the architects surveyed the lot and are “ready to kind of move forward with their final pitch.”

The redesign, he said, would include a sidewalk that run adjacent to the west side of the building as well as re-grading and a re-paving.

The architects also were “looking into the water that gathers on the Fourth Avenue entrance which is a real problem.

“Part of that plan is the handicapped spots will move around to right in front of the main entrance (Fifth Ave),” he added.

The lot, generally, will be designed to allow vehicles to “drive through the middle of the lot” rather than the turns that are now required to work from the Fourth Ave. to Fifth Ave. entrances.

“There are a lot of blind spots because of that,” Commissioner Ben Kafferlin acknowledged.

Eggleston said traffic flow should be improved and that the parking spaces that are currently angled will be turned into straight, pull in spaces.

“I’m not sure why it was designed the way it was,” he said. “Angled spots take up more space so there are less spots.”

He said it’s their goal to mitigate the loss of spaces that comes from installing a sidewalk up the side of the building with added spaces from eliminating the angled spaces.

He added that the commissioners should prepare to bid out the parking lot project soon in order to have a contractor lined up in time to complete the work next spring.

“The goal is to be (able) to make the lot safer for everybody,” he said. “That’s the fundamental goal.”

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