photo by: Journal-World

The west side of the Douglas County Courthouse, 1100 Massachusetts St., is pictured on Sept. 23, 2021.

The Douglas County Commission on Wednesday voted unanimously to approve a $1,256,000 construction contract for a remodel of the Douglas County Treasurer’s Satellite Office, along with a $1.6 million overall project budget.

Commissioners approved the contract with Icon Structures Inc. at their regular weekly business meeting. As the Journal-World has reported, the current satellite office in south Lawrence, at 2000 W. 31st St., is set to move into a larger location in the western part of the city at 2601 W. Sixth St. this year. That new office is double the size of the 2,500-square-foot space the satellite office has been located in for the past eight years.

Though there was a single public commenter who questioned the timing of the project, commissioners Patrick Kelly and Shannon Reid both pointed out that the project utilizes $650,000 in one-time American Rescue Plan Act funding. Kelly, in particular, noted that ARPA funding comes with a time limit, which the county wants to take advantage of.

“… While I appreciate those comments and understand them and respect them, I’m happy to move forward with this project,” Kelly said. “I think it does make the Treasurer’s Office more accessible; we have some issues with accessibility here at the courthouse, and I think this provides lots more parking than we’ll have here, especially with some more coming construction projects here at our main campus.”

Douglas County Administrator Sarah Plinsky added that moving offices will save the county about $100,000 in lease costs per year, which will add up over time as the value of the new property also appreciates.

The renovation project is expected to wrap up later this year.

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This was the County Commission’s last regular meeting in the Douglas County Courthouse before work begins on another significant renovation project for the county: a $1.5 million renovation of the commission’s meeting room. With that work anticipated to take until nearly the end of 2024, the County Commission will hold its regular meetings in the training room at the county’s public works building moving forward.

In other business, commissioners:

* Approved a motion to waive the county’s purchasing policy and authorize staff to issue a blanket purchase order for 2024 legal services provided by John Bullock with Seyferth Blumenthal & Harris in the amount of $250,000 and an additional purchase order for Stevens & Brand in the amount of $100,000.

Bullock has served as the county counselor since December 2015 and moved to his new Kansas City, Missouri, firm from Stevens & Brand in late 2023. Commission Chair Karen Willey said at Wednesday’s meeting that it’s up to the Commission to appoint the county counselor, rather than county administrative staff, and commissioners weren’t looking to make a change at this time.

“This was an unexpected change, it’s a change that we’re absorbing,” Willey said. “I think that this is still an open question, as far as I’m open to other ideas. We have legal needs at the very moment that need to be addressed, and I’m very comfortable with the decision we have in the moment to stick with the attorney that we’ve chosen and also to continue to work with Stevens & Brand with some other issues.”

* Approved the 2024 tow operators agreement.