Courthouse repairs part of Grant County capital budget

EPHRATA — Repairs to the steps at the Grant County Courthouse and deferred maintenance and improvements at the Grant County Fairgrounds are among the projects in the county’s capital budget for 2021.

Central Services Director Tom Gaines defined a capital project as “a project that helps maintain or improve a county asset.” Assets can be anything from mechanical equipment to new buildings.

“We’re doing maintenance. A lot of maintenance,” Gaines said.

One of his goals is to clear some of the backlog, so crews can do more preventative maintenance. They have made progress, he said, but there’s a long way to go.

At the courthouse, the steps will be repaired and the terrazzo tile in the entry will be refinished at a cost of about $120,000, paid for with a grant for historic preservation.

The courthouse was built in 1917. The nature of the project meant it took a while to find a contractor, Gaines said. But the county has a contractor and an approved plan. The repairs must be completed before June 30.

The courthouse annex was built in 1956, and the Grant County Jail in 1983, Gaines said.

“We’re at the end of the useful life of a lot of this equipment,” Gaines said. “At some point this stuff fails.”

Some maintenance and upgrade projects are holdovers from 2020, including converting exterior entries and interior office doors to keyless entry. County officials also are working on upgrades to some courtrooms to allow more video communication.

Both of those projects are being paid for with federal funds intended to mitigate some of the costs of adapting to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Another restroom is being added at the Grant County Fairgrounds, between the 4-H and Commercial buildings. The estimated cost is about $250,000.

“We have been putting a lot of money into it (the fairgrounds),” Gaines said. “Everybody really cares about the fairgrounds.”

Fairgrounds director Jim McKiernan said other fairgrounds improvements include installation of new and bigger stalls in two of the horse barns, a project that will cost about $150,000, cleaning up debris and doing some landscaping, such as removing a racetrack outside the rodeo arena that’s no longer used. The estimated cost is about $45,000.