(Spirit Lake)– It’s been a little more than a week since a 14.9 million dollar bond issue for a new Dickinson county courthouse was passed by 65 percent of those who voted in a special referendum.
Wednesday, the board of supervisors met with architect Al Oberlander of the R-D-G Crose Gardner Shukert firm and got a better idea on a timeframe for the project.
Oberlander says schematic designs will be completed by mid-November. At that point he says they’ll know where every room is going to be located in the building. Oberlander says that information will then be taken to the next phase…design development…in early February. Following that, Oberlander says construction documents will be completed and readied for a bidletting in late June, 2004. Construction on the first phase of the new courthouse could then start in late summer or early fall one year from now.
Looking at other issues associated with the project, the supervisors indicated Wednesday they’ll be establishing a policy for those looking for artifacts once the 1891 part of the courthouse is torn down. They indicated they’ll likely require anything that’s found on the site be turned over to one of the local museums or the county, but nothing definite has been decided yet. It’s believed there may be some historically significant artifacts beneath the site as it was used as a fort while the courthouse was being built in the late 1800’s.
The supervisors will also be deciding how to liquidate portions of the 1891 building that may have some salvage value.
