Courthouse window issue tabled

Monday, November 14, 2022
Commissioners Randy Dean and Earl McNutt check out the cold air filtering in around the windows in the commissioners' room in the courthouse. They had hoped a state grant could be combined with American Rescue Plan Act funding to replace the windows, but historic preservation grant requirements have complicated the issue.
Bruce Crosby/McCook Gazette

McCOOK, Neb. — Red Willow County commissioners encountered sticker shock when it comes to replacing windows in the courthouse.

Meeting Monday, the board voted unanimously to direct architects to suspend work on an application for a historic preservation grant they were counting on to help pay for the project to make the courthouse more weather-tight.

They took the action because the grant wouldn't allow simple replacement of the windows, but would require the current nearly-century-old windows to be refurbished at a cost of nearly three-quarters of a million dollars.

After reviewing cost estimates that were, in chairman Earl McNutt's description, "scarier by the moment," commissioners tabled the issue for a week to give time to check with other potential vendors.

Commissioners also tabled action on a 2006 Holland Skid Steer, which was to be declared surplus from the Household Hazardous Waste department after new one was purchased. Commissioner Randy Dean said he would check to see if his district could use the machine.

Other business included approval of $607,582.94 in accounts payable claims, which included an annual jail bond payment of $307,420, and approval of a five-year contract with the Nebraska Department of Transportation for the preservation of land survey corners, at $300 per location.

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