A limestone landmark that cost $62,181 to build nearly 100 years ago soon will get a new fire-suppression system to protect its structure, contents and employees.

Consider it a $159,000 insurance policy on the Douglas County Courthouse.

“It’s a remote possibility that this building would ever burn, but if it did burn there would be hell to pay if we had to explain why we never sprinkled it,” said Craig Weinaug, county administrator. “I wish they would have done it back in 1903. It would have been a lot cheaper then.”

Douglas County commissioners agreed Wednesday to hire Conley Sprinkler Inc., of Pleasanton, to install a sprinkler system inside the landmark limestone building at the corner of 11th and Massachusetts streets.

Conley will spend about six weeks designing the system, which is expected to include 250 sprinkler heads poking out of ceilings from the Appraiser’s Office in the basement to the clock tower above Massachusetts Street.

The heads will be connected with about 4,000 feet of steel pipes, designed to carry enough water to pump at least 15 gallons of water per minute from each sprinkler, when warmed to 155 degrees Fahrenheit.

“We won’t be affecting the appearance of the building at all,” said John Travis, sales manager for Conley, which did $4 million in work last year.

And the systems are reliable, he said: The chances of a faulty sprinkler head spewing water without a fire is one in 16 million.

“There’s never been a life lost in a building that was completely sprinklered, as long as the system was operational  ever,” Travis said. “It speaks for itself.”

The county’s contract originally was to be part of a $5 million, two-part project to renovate the courthouse and renovate and expand the Judicial & Law Enforcement Center next door.

Original bids for the sprinkler work came in at $260,000, well above the engineer’s estimate of about $60,000. The disparity prompted commissioners to seek a better deal on their own.

Conley’s offer fit the bill.

“It’s spending more money than we’d like to, but less money than we would have had to,” Commissioner Bob Johnson said.