Commissioners discuss next set of repairs for former courthouse

For its first regular meeting of 2015, the Cass County Board of Commissioners returned to the subject that has been on the agenda throughout the previous 18 months — the stabilization of the old county courthouse building.

During its meeting Thursday in Cassopolis, County Administrator Roger Fraser updated the commissioners about latest round of repairs needed to the century old structure, which is located next to the county annex in downtown Cassopolis. The administrator recommended that the board consider hiring structural engineers with Kalamazoo-based firm Miller-Davis to handle the rebuilding of two support beams in structure’s roof.

Fraser’s proposal comes on the heels of a the results of a feasibility study on the old courthouse, performed by JDH Structural Engineering last year.

Though the report given to the county found that the building was in “reasonably sound” condition, engineers discovered that two large beams supporting the building’s roof have been warped, and are in need of straightening are in order to continue supporting the structure. Due to the unique design of the beams, a straight forward repair is not possible, Fraser said.

“Part of the reason we are interested in Miller-Davis is that they have a history of working in these kinds of peculiar circumstances, where a specifically, undisputed engineering solution has been laid out for a problem,” he said. “They have a history of being able to take a look at that and see whether or not that works. If not, then they work with the engineering firm to come up with something based on their in-depth look at this project that will get that done.”

Representatives with the firm were on hand during Thursday meeting, presenting their plan for the repairs to the board. Miller-Davis plans to use sketches provided by JDH to complete the work, said Jeff Timmerman, construction operations manager with the company.

“We’ve looked at those sketches, and tried to fill in the blanks with what is not shown on them,” Timmerman said. “There’s a lot of other work that goes along with this that engineering has not shown.”

The company will furnish all necessary supervision, labor, materials and tools to complete the project, which they said will not exceed a sum of $69,600.

This project will move forward for action by the board during the next meeting of the board of commissioners, on Feb. 5.

The vintage courthouse ad-hoc committee will hold their first meeting of the new year this Wednesday, at 10 a.m. inside the commissioners’ chambers in the county annex building.