The Warren County Commission last Thursday agreed to spend $431,280.23 to renovate the courthouse as part of plans to construct a jail dorm and a third courtroom. The project will consist of turning the maintenance room located on the courthouse’s main floor into a jail dorm that will house up to 10 work release inmates. The former commission chambers and the county clerk’s office will be renovated for a third courtroom, while an evidence room for the sheriff’s department will be constructed on the lower level of the courthouse. The individual contracts unanimously awarded last Thursday were: • General construction — T.S. Banze Construction, the lowest of five bids at $82,950; • Detention doors, hardware and frames — Stronghold Industries, the lowest of four bids at $66,000; • Casework and finished carpentry — T.S. Banze Construction, the lowest of six bids at $42,950; • Plumbing, HVAC and fire sprinklers — Heggemann Inc., the lowest of two bids at $61,766; • Electrical, security electronics, fire alarm and data — Higgins Electric, the lowest of two bids at $54,916. The project budget also includes $55,000 to cover general conditions and $25,000 for contingencies, with Treanor Architects to be paid $312,948.23 for designing the project and Septagon Construction $10,750 for overseeing the work. Those were the same firms that were hired by the county for the administration building project. The renovation project was estimated to cost $440,000. The county has budgeted money for the project out of the capital improvement fund, the same fund that was used to construct the $6.5 million administration building. “We’re doing a little bit bigger project than we anticipated,” Presiding Commissioner Arden Engelage said. “It will pretty much deplete the capital fund, but now is a good time to put it in.” Ian Hagan, of Septagon Construction, said construction will begin as soon as possible and should be wrapped up by the middle of November. He acknowledged that disruption to the public should be minimal while construction is ongoing. “It will go real fast,” he said. “We will try not to impact the public as much as possible.” The jail dorm is expected to help eliminate some of the contraband that is brought into the regular jail population and ease overcrowding, according to officials. In the past overcrowding in the jail led to some inmates having to be moved to Montgomery County, commissioners said. “We possibly won’t have to do that,” Southern District Commissioner Hubie Kluesner said. “That should be some savings to taxpayers.” The third courtroom won’t have a jury box, but will be able to handle a growing load of civil and other cases. With so much time spent on planning the administration building project in recent years, commissioners initially didn’t expect the courthouse renovation project to start as quickly as it will, but are pleased to be able to get the project under way. “It became faster than what I thought,” Kluesner said. “It will be a big improvement for the court system, the jail. Those were areas we needed to improve.”