(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson county board of supervisors Monday started the laborious task of working toward a bond issue election this summer on the courthouse. They started whittling away on just what type of a proposal should be brought to the voters. At this point they still have more questions than answers.
Four of the five supervisors indicated they support keeping the courthouse on the present site, as long as it’s cost effective. Supervisor Chair David Gottsche favors moving to a new site, especially if there isn’t enough square footage on the present site to meet space needs. Fellow supervisor Paul Johnson says that’s one of several things they’ll be researching in the next couple of weeks. They’ll also gather cost estimates on ongoing future maintainenance, replacing the mechanical system in the existing building, to repair the exterior; and to meet the fire marshall’s deficiencies. That will be weighed with the cost of building new, either on the existing site or a new one. The supervisors have set April 15th as the deadline to gather all that information.
A tentative timeframe they outlined Monday calls for an architect to be hired late this month with the architect’s plans due by mid-May, at which time a bonding attorney would also be hired. Public meetings would be held in mid-June with a bond election in mid-August.
Supervisor Marty Allen admitted that timeframe may be too ambitious in light of all the research that needs to be done. But supervisor Wayne Northey says he got the impression from constituents last year they wanted to see a courthouse bond issue come up for a vote sometime this summer.
