The fact of the matter is, even if we can salvage the courthouse it will never be used for county offices again. It was already inadequate for the operations that were there. Hopefully, maybe it can be used as a museum or other uses that will benefit the county and the city. It may take a long time to get it back to it's proud old self, if at all.

It is incumbent on county commission to move as quickly as possible to get our offices and courts in a new facility that will support their needs. One idea we've discussed is building a new annex building identical to and beside the current one in the south, east section of the courthouse block. See Below.  

The new annex would be the same on the outside as old one. The two story building would have 20,000 sq. ft., 10,000 top floor and 10,000 on the ground floor. The ground floor would house the courtroom and all court associated facilities. The top floor would house the clerk & master's office and the circuit court clerk's office.

The old courthouse provided only 2,000 sq. ft. for the courts and the entire courthouse only had a little more than 10,000 sq. ft. The new facility would provide ample space for the courts and offices with room to spare.

Nothing is set in stone by any means, but this would be a great addition to county facilities and could probably be done before the 150th anniversary.

We sure don't want to be sitting here a year from now still trying to figure out what to do.