With the completion of the Linn County Justice Center, several county offices will begin moving into new accommodations over the next few weeks. (File photo)
MOUND CITY – The Linn County Commissioners learned that moving to the new justice center will be started soon, but the move will be done in steps.
On Monday, June 6, County Counselor Gary Thompson told the commissioners that when he had leased the three sites for county offices to use during the building of the justice center, he had leased them until July 1.
Since much of the moving will take place in June, this will probably work out well, he said. But just in case, all three sites have agreed to extend the lease for one more month if necessary.
With the district court, county attorney, sheriff's office and the jail expected to move to the new Justice Center, other offices are expected to move into the current courthouse.
Commissioner Rick James asked what the balance in the justice center fund was.
County Clerk David Lamb said that it was about $1.4 million and about $900,000 of that was the retainage, which is the construction contract amount that is withheld until the contractor and subcontractors have completed work on the building.
James said the plan had been to move the offices on the top floor of the courthouse to the current District Court building. He said he had been over there recently looking at the building with the appraiser and how the offices were set up.
He said the building was in good shape but there would need to be some reconfiguring for the two departments and also for storage area in the courtroom. Lamb said that he was hoping to use some of the storage area for the election equipment, which needs to be in a secure, climate-controlled area.
James asked if they would need to get an engineer or an architect to reconfigure the areas. It was decided to start out by having the department heads look it over and then seeing if they could find someone to do a drawing.
The commissioners agreed that the old jail building will be torn down, but that probably will not happen until August or September. Because there is salvageable material in the jail building, Thompson will draft a proposal for bids for that demolition.
James said that he would like to see the county hold onto the old county attorney’s office for right now. He said he would like to see if another government agency was interested in it.
At the county and city leaders meeting on Tuesday, June 7, James said that if there were any money left over after remodeling the old district court, that the county might look into putting heating, ventilation and air conditioning into the first floor of the old courthouse where the clerk, treasurer, and register of deeds offices are.