News
Commissioners consider addition to the courthouse
Scott Wagar
12/30/2013
The Bottineau County Commissioners has hired an architectural firm which has drawn up plans for the possibility of adding an addition to the courthouse sometime in the future.
“We are getting kind of tight for office space,” said Leroy Rude, county commissioner of Bottineau County. “We have hired JLG Architects to do some plans for us, and we have received four plans with estimates from the firm with plans to add on to the northeast back corner of the courthouse.”
Three of the plans call for constructing the addition directly behind the library on the north side while one plan calls for adding an addition on the entire north side of the courthouse.
There is also a discussion about utilizing the sheriff’s residence for additional space because Sheriff Steve Watson would like to live in his own home in Bottineau instead of the residence provided for him at the courthouse.
The issue to find more room comes from local law enforcement attempts to find more room in the courthouse and the possibility of hiring two more employees for social services.
“Social services might have to hire a couple of employees and if they do we might have to add on,” Rude said. “And, the sheriff’s office is getting a little short of room, too.”
Estimates for the four plans are $360,000 to $1.7 million. Rude stated that he personally feels that the finances for the addition should be set aside before constructing an addition.
“My opinion is that we put the money away before we go ahead with this,” he said.
The next step for the addition plans is to discuss it between the commissioners and then take the discussion to the employees of the courthouse.
“If we decide that we are really going to need it we will take it to the employees,” Rude said. “And, we will have a discussion with them to see how we should really go about it.”
Rude added that the talks are early in dialogue.
“We are not even sure that we are going to do it,” Rude said. “We are in the very primary stages of the discussions and we could be voted down and leave the courthouse as it is. It’s just thoughts so far and it is not something we are moving ahead on very fast.”