photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

The scaffolding outside the east entrance on Monday, September 16, 2024 is used for moving items in and out during the meeting chambers construction.

The Douglas County Courthouse is still in the midst of several renovations. The meeting chambers are anticipated to be completed by January, but new masonry restoration work on the exterior of the building will begin in the coming weeks.

As the Journal-World reported, on Wednesday, Douglas County Commissioners signed an agreement for masonry restoration work for the exterior of the courthouse. The agreement, which totaled $791,367, was to clean all sides of the courthouse and to restore and repoint portions of the west elevation, as well as the entire south, east, and north elevations. These facades were not addressed in the courthouse’s previous restoration work in 2010, and the work is estimated to commence in late September or early October and conclude in March 2025.

In 2010, masonry restoration and repointing were finished only on the left side of the west entrance doors. This work will now extend to the entire exterior of the building, and the team will not restore and repoint the portions of the building that were completed in 2010. Additionally, the whole outside will be cleaned to remove dirt and organic material from window sills and areas where rainwater has accumulated over time.

There were five bids that were submitted for the project, ranging from the low bid of $791,367 to $1,269,854. All of the bids were below the architect’s estimate of $3,021,185. Jay Zimmerschied, director of capital projects, said these lower bids could be because of a number of factors.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

The left side of the gutters was restored and repointed in 2010 on the west side of the Douglas County Courthouse. This masonry restoration project will complete the remaining west side and all the other sides to the building.

He said that the cost increases with the height of the work. When the county first estimated costs in 2010, they included the tallest parts of the courthouse, but that work was completed separately, so those costs are not included now. Since workers will be operating at a lower height than originally anticipated, Zimmerschied noted that this could have contributed to the lower overall costs.

There’s also the timing of the project, as the Journal-World reported. Zimmerschied told commissioners at the Wednesday meeting that several masonry projects have been wrapping up and subcontractors are actively looking for projects like this.

While exterior masonry work is being done, there’s also below-grade masonry work that’s being done, which focuses on the walls that come into contact with or extend below the ground. The Journal-World reported that waterproofing the courthouse’s lower level involved deconstructing the stairways on the outside of the building, digging down around the building to do the waterproofing, then reconstructing the steps. The north side, where his team rebuilt the historic step, the west side and a portion of the south side has been waterproofed, Zimmerschied said.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Many people worked on the construction inside the Douglas County Courthouse’s meeting chambers on Monday, September 16, 2024.

“When they built (the building), they just stacked up some stone, and so any groundwater just has a free kind of path to get through to the inside,” Zimmerschied said.

He said the last waterproofing needed is at the east side entrance, left of the doors. The project, which started last September, was delayed by winter weather. Zimmerschied said that the scaffolding outside the east entrance, used for moving items in and out during the meeting chambers construction, must be removed before the final waterproofing can be completed.

“Our focus right now is to really get that room complete and ready for five commissioners when they arrive in January,” Zimmerschied said. “And so as quickly as this scaffolding is gone, we believe in mid October, they’ll go and finish this corner of the building. We’re hoping to be done with the below grade in November.”

As the Journal-World reported, the county commission approved a total project budget of $1,543,845 to remodel the commission’s meeting chambers at the historic courthouse in February. The remodeling will take the space back to its 1904 configuration when the dais — the bench-like structure where commissioners sit — was positioned on the south side of the room.

Zimmershied said there was a surprise uncovered during the renovation construction behind the historic dais backboard. The piece had been on the wall for so long and not removed when the walls around it were painted. So when workers removed it recently, they found a pattern that looked like people were painting the plaster to mimic marble blocks.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

The marble like pattern was behind the historic dais background.

“They also had these scorings, so they put the plaster on the wall as a finish, and then scored it to make it look like it was a block or something,” Zimmershied said.

“This is all faux painting. I’m assuming they (started doing it) because it was less expensive, but you can see the color and then how they tried to create veins (to mimic marble).”

He said that even though they discovered it until after the job, as they move forward, they will consider if they want to replicate this pattern throughout the meeting chambers.

The meeting chambers renovations are expected to be finished by January 2025, just in time for the arrival of the two new commissioners.