A contractor was approved to perform the renovations to the third floor of the Starke County Courthouse.
The large courtroom upgrades include new doors, curtains and flooring, audio and visual equipment, rails, and lighting. They’ve been working with the contractor and looking into shell stone tile for sale to be installed. The lighting fixtures will be re-lamped with energy saving lighting. A new security feature that can be accessed by the judge and the judge’s staff to either lock people inside or outside of the courtroom and offices is planned.
A fire alarm system is included, but outside of the budget as it was included following the initial discussion.
The jury rooms will get a fresh coat of paint and new ceiling tiles, while the Magistrate’s court will get new wainscot paneling, new carpet and lighting. The wallpaper will be removed and the walls will be plastered.
Five bids were received for the renovation work. John Kirk from DLZ recommended that the commissioners approve a contract with Ziolkowski Construction out of South Bend. The company submitted the lowest bid for the project in the amount of $299,500 for priority items. The responsible bidder process was initiated in this project. The bid was lower than the $350,000 budget for the renovations.
Because the bid came in under the budget, Kirk said some items could be looked at that could be added in the project that were initially left out due to cost. They will review pricing and may go before the county council and ask for more money to get it all done.
Commissioner Kathy Norem commented that the fire protection option will be chosen. John Kirk said that will be done with a change order to add that option as a different contractor would be doing the work.
