Courthouse renovations possible

As phase one of rebuilding Loudon County Courthouse gets closer to completion, local officials are considering possible modifications for the interior.

“We’re toward the end of phase one and right now we’re looking at the transition from phase one to phase two,” Rollen “Buddy” Bradshaw, county mayor, said.

Susan Huskey, county purchasing director, said stabilization was completed in July. Architects have started work on reconstruction drawings.

“Mold remediation began late July and still ongoing as contractors have finished removing the paint from the walls that were marked by S&ME as holding too much moisture that was slowing the drying process,” Huskey said in an email correspondence. “This will allow for additional drying of the walls and further testing from S&ME will be conducted on drying conditions. Masons are continuing to work on the reconstruction of the interior brick support wall that was blown due to the amount of water pouring into the building at one location the night of the fire. They will begin chipping away at the plaster at the visible interior cracks so these cracks can be assessed and repaired.”

According to the project’s timeline, upcoming masonry work set for Dec. 21-Feb. 1 will bridge a gap for phases one and two.

During a November workshop, Loudon County Commissioner Van Shaver posed the idea of reworking space inside the courthouse and asked Steve Harrelson, county circuit court clerk, for input. Bradshaw was tasked with setting up a meeting with Traveler’s Insurance.

“What brought it to term is the folks that had been doing the mitigation part right now, the salvage, the moisture and all that sort of stuff, they’re coming to end of their part of the project,” Shaver said. “Well, now it’s going to be time to start the actual renovations of the interior, and talking to Steve Harrelson and others that work in the office there, this will be the time to make some really, really good changes that would if we’re going to be staying in the old courthouse, it would make it more user-friendly than it has been in the past.

“We’d have the opportunity here to move some interior walls to make the offices a little bit different alignment so that it’s more user-friendly,” he added. “Now would be the time to have that conversation.”

Huskey said Traveler’s has indicated restoration puts the building at conditions before the first. Changes will be financed by the county.

“The goal would be to get with the insurance company to say we would like to do this, that and the other — A, B, C and D,” Shaver said. “Probably it will save money for the insurance company if we’re not going to put a wall back here or not going to put a wall there. That would probably save them some money and hope that we would get their permission to say, ‘OK, we’ll change this at this point, or we’ll make this wall go here at this point,’ and if the insurance company wouldn’t have a problem with that. What we’ve been told thus far is it has to be exactly like it was, there’s no deviation, we can’t move out, but it’s hard for me to imagine that if the insurance company can save money in the process, they wouldn’t have a problem with some minor modifications.”

Bradshaw agreed. “If you look at the timing, we’re going to be back in the courthouse for at least several more years,” Bradshaw said. “I think making it as usable as possible is big. We’ve outgrown it the way it was set up. Now if it comes down to it, we may end up having to push all that and get everything done, but I think it’d be cheaper from an economic standpoint to maybe work it into the plans, and, of course, the county is willing to pay for that if the insurance will cooperate with us. ... The longest route will be to have to let them finish and then come in and redo new construction. Hopefully, we can work something out with insurance that would say, ‘This is what it would cost. Can we allot this over, change the plans and you all still stay true to the refurbishing?’”

Harrelson believes modifications could be worth it for his office and Loudon County Clerk and Master Lisa Niles.

“We need a better greeting area when they come into the circuit court offices or the clerk and master’s office,” Harrelson said. “We were just really confined as far as space for the public to come in to file things or make payments or whatever they needed from our courts. That’s the big thing. The other thing is, the courthouse had smaller office areas. We had four employees working in one small office area, and if we can take some the interior walls and just move them a little bit in the office areas it’ll make them a whole lot more functional. We won’t have employees on top of each other during times such as COVID and others. It’ll just make it a whole lot better as far as safety and functionality.

“... Hopefully COVID’s not going to be around when we move back in, but it makes you aware that the type areas that they were having to work, we’d really been in a fix right now if we were still in the courthouse as far as keeping employees safe,” he added.

Bradshaw believes there’s a chance more discussion could happen at the December workshop. Even if changes occur, he believes an annex could be considered in the future.

“I think certainly no matter what happens sometime in the future we’ll have to do something,” Shaver said. “... I would still think some day in the future we’ll have to do something. What that will be and what that will look like when the time comes I have no idea, but right now the goal is to get the courthouse back open and functioning.”