The Washington County Board met last night and one of the items for discussion was the renovation of the courthouse, now that the judicial part has moved into their new building. There was a special meeting over a week ago to discuss what to do with the possible renovation of the courthouse. There are many problems with the building, including spacing and it is not handicap accessible, just to name a couple. Financing was also addressed by Building Committee Chair Gary Suedmeyer, as there is approximately $1.7 million left in reserves Capital Improvement fund from the Prairie State project, as well as $1 million coming in each this October and next October and after that Ash Pile money will begin to come in to the County. There was a need to get the process begun as they want to get the renovations done after the upcoming election and back into the building for the next primary in 2016. Discussion also focused on the renovation being done from December 2014 through December 2015 and where the offices will be relocated during this timespan. The Community Center is one option, but the cost is unknown at this time. They will also need to decide if they want to take out the iron work and sell it or have the contractor handle it and give the county a discount, as there is a large amount of it in the building to be replaced and it is worth money. A motion to begin the design process with a cap of $3.3 million for the project was approved. This does include $300,000 in contingency money. This is not approving designs or specific items, just to get the project moving. Image Architects will now begin to draw up plans and designs on what needs to be done for approval at a later date. The Board can also go forward and secure a place to relocate to during the renovation. The Regional Office of Education may move back into the courthouse. Suedmeyer says there are some problems still being worked out in the new Judicial Building, such as the automatic on – off lights not working properly. He says they need to be reprogrammed and this will happen next week. Also, there have been some heating issues and this is also an electrical problem. There will be a reception and open house on Sunday April 27th at 2 PM for the new building.