Courthouse construction delayed again

EPHRATA — The discovery of a pair of abandoned and long forgotten underground fuel storage tanks has delayed renovation work on the Grant County Courthouse an additional couple of weeks.

According to Tom Gaines, central services director for Grant County, the two tanks were found as construction workers were tearing up a parking lot to run additional electricity connections to the courthouse.

“The lot used to be a fuel island for the county in the 1910s and 1920s,” Gaines said. “One tank had what seemed to be water in it, and the other was empty but stank of gasoline. You couldn’t get close to it, the smell was so strong.”

Gaines said some research discovered a set of plans dating from some time in the 1940s or 1950s instructing the county to remove or relocate the tanks. Instead, they were simply capped and buried.

Until the 1980s, landowners were not required to remove underground fuel storage tanks or even notify anyone of abandoned tanks. Steel tanks frequently rusted and corroded, leaking gasoline and other chemicals into the ground and potentially contaminating ground water.

Gaines said the tanks have been removed and the parking lot paved over.

The discovery of significant amounts of asbestos in the courthouse also delayed renovations by several weeks, and the $8.4 million project is now slated to be completed in June, 2017, instead of in May.

“We’re trying our best to make that time up,” he said.

The additional time will not cost the county any additional money, Gaines added, since the county negotiated a guaranteed maximum construction price deal with the contractor. Any added construction time simply costs the contractor money.

In addition to improving the electricity service to the hundred-year-old courthouse, the renovations also include an outside restoration, new windows, and a new heating and cooling system.