The commissioners signed a formal contract with Treanor Architects PA, headquartered in St. Louis, for the design phase of the facility. Treanor officials said they expect to start immediately on designing the expandable, 39,000-square-foot building. The facility will be two stories tall, with a walkout basement comprising a third level. Treanor's design fee will be approximately $500,000, or roughly 7.5 percent of the anticipated $6.7 million cost of the building. Last month the commissioners approved locating the new building on a 0.9 acre tract of land in downtown Warrenton, located one block south of the present Warren County Courthouse. The county owns the property, which is now used primarily as an employee parking lot for courthouse personnel. The vote on using the downtown site was 2-1. Southern District Commissioner Randy Lewis and Northern District Commissioner Jim Logan voted in favor of the motion, while Presiding Commissioner Arden Engelage voted no. Two other sites were considered for the new building: A 4-5 acre parcel in Brune Business Park and a tract of land in the Truesdale Industrial Park "It's good to be getting this going," said Sharon Schmitz, AIA, an architect with Treanor, who has been handling negotiations with the county. With the paperwork completed, Schmitz said the next steps would include a survey of the property, which the commissioners will probably choose to pursue through a local company, and the development of preliminary building design plans. The design process could take about three months to complete, Schmitz said, which would carry the project's time line through mid-December. "I would estimate that we might be able to begin actual construction sometime in the middle of next summer," Schmitz observed, "barring any unforeseen complications. "We want to have the building foundation done well before the start of next winter," she added. Schmitz said she estimated a total construction time line of "between 12-15 months," meaning the building could be completed before the end of 2010. Schmitz said the building's footprint of about 3,600 square feet would take about two-thirds of the lot, leaving less than one-third of an acre for parking. She originally recommended a lot size of at least 1.6 acres to accommodate the additional parking requirements for the new building. "There just isn't much available parking space downtown," she explained. But Southern District Commissioner Randy Lewis said he has diagrammed a new parking plan to allow diagonal parking along Walton Street which would provide 62 parking spaces to replace the 54 spaces the county will lose from the existing parking lot. "The city of Warrenton has seen the proposed new parking layout," Lewis said, "and they have assured me they will work with us on this project." Schmitz said her firm's focus on designing the building will be to ensure it fits adequately on the county's lot. "But if you (eventually) think this lot isn't going to be the solution," she said, "we'll look at designing a building that can fit on either site." Her reference was to the Brune Park location, which is favored by Engelage and some other county officials over the downtown site. "We know the downtown location is the selected site," Schmitz noted, "but we don't want to have to invalidate the (design) work in any event."br> The basement of the new building will primarily provide space for archived records storage, but can be converted into office space as the need arises. The main level will include the Warren County Health Department, the county treasurer, auditor, emergency management and environmental services offices. The second floor will house the commissioners chambers as well as the county clerk and her staff. Once the new building is completed, the county will complete a renovation project within the courthouse to allow additional space for both the courts and the sheriff's department. A third courtroom will be added in the courthouse.