Douglas County commissioners are buying two buildings for the price of one at the Douglas County 4-H Fairgrounds.

Commissioners on Wednesday agreed to hire Weigel Construction Inc., of Olathe, to add two buildings at the fairgrounds southeast of 19th and Harper streets:

l One to provide office space, room for equipment storage and a repair shop for the county’s Department of Buildings and Grounds, which cares for the fairgrounds and other county properties.

l Another to accommodate piles of documents, including court files.

Commissioners originally had expected to put both operations under the same roof, but dividing the plans into two structures actually proved to be cost-effective, Commissioner Jere McElhaney said.

Weigel has offered to do the work for nearly $700,000. Commissioners authorized McElhaney to approve the formal contract in the coming days.

Construction should begin in about two weeks and be finished sometime in the spring, McElhaney said. Weigel has committed to finish the job within 200 calendar days of the start of construction.

County officials have been scrambling for years to find space for the county’s mounting stacks of records related to taxes, court cases, elections and other operations. A county-owned home on Rhode Island Street no longer is suitable for storage, officials said, and a converted church at 1242 Mass. is not equipped to take any more boxes.

An expansion of the Judicial & Law Enforcement Center, 111 E. 11th St., opened up some room in the basement for records storage, but officials have considered the area as a holdover until the new building is completed.

The new building will include security and tracking systems to keep sensitive records safe and allow for quick location of necessary documents by county personnel, officials said.