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 has agreed to move forward with what county staff describes as “the first of many steps” in remodeling the Douglas County Courthouse.

During a brief meeting on Wednesday, the commission granted its approval to enter into a contract with B.A. Green Construction for one project intended to contribute toward that process — consolidating some staff members from the building’s second floor into existing open space on the first.

Jay Zimmerschied, the county’s director of capital projects, told commissioners that the project will relocate five accounts payable and payroll staff members from the courthouse’s second floor into the first-floor Douglas County Clerk’s Office space that has been vacant since the county’s Elections Department moved into a satellite office on 23rd Street. He said this “small part” of the overall master plan was intended to lead to better efficiency in how services were delivered to community members from the courthouse offices.

Zimmerschied said that pre-existing clerk’s office space would be remodeled as part of the contract. The proposed project budget is $364,138, which County Administrator Sarah Plinsky said would come from either the county’s CIP Contingency Fund or the Special Building Fund.

“Costs for this remodel were higher than Jay and I anticipated for this project,” Plinsky said. “We do have the funds to cover them, but I do think we’re going to be using revised numbers moving forward for the rest of our remodeling projects, just based off of current demands and current pricing on construction in the marketplace.”

After this project, Plinsky said the next piece of the courthouse remodel puzzle would likely be remodeling the administrative staffing space on the building’s second floor.

In other business, the commission:

* Approved a site plan for a self-storage facility located near the intersection of Highway 56 and Highway 59 in southern Douglas County. The facility will consist of 15 mini-storage units and one open building for RV and boat storage.