By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
CASSOPOLIS - In deference to Friend of the Court employees fighting for their jobs, Cass County commissioners Thursday night tabled action on a new maintenance garage and the first makeover of the 1899 courthouse in 30 years.
Two motions and a resolution appeared on the agenda to set the preliminary stages of those projects into motion, but commissioners felt misgivings about, for example, appropriating $20,000 from the delinquent tax revolving fund and asking the county Building Authority to retain professionals to prepare studies, initial plans and a cost estimate for the first makeover of the courthouse since 1975.
Vice Chairman Ron Francis, R-Cassopolis, added, "I was concerned about spending $20,000 in light of other budget issues we have, but I look at this as a planning tool. We've got problems with the jail and maintaining this building."
The Ad Hoc Budget and Capital Improvement Committee toured the courthouse at the corner of Broadway and State Street in downtown Cassopolis and concurred the interior is in need of extensive renovation.
Another motion would have asked the Building Authority to prepare a plan and cost estimate for a maintenance garage on the county campus of buildings at the north end of the village along M-62.
Chairman Robert Wagel, Vice Chairman Francis and Commissioners David Taylor, Cathy Goodenough and Dale Lowe have been meeting as the ad hoc panel.
They toured the MSU Extension building/maintenance garage in the former sheriff's annex which was once a car dealership.
From their investigation of the building's condition and the land on which it sits on State Street, the committee recommended pursuing the new facility.
The Board of Commissioners created the Building Authority in 1986 to acquire, furnish and equip county buildings.
Since the jail and sheriff's office, it has also been tapped for repair of the courthouse tower, replacement of courthouse roofs, removing the old jail and building parking lots, the Van Buren/Cass District Health Department building, the Law and Courts Building and the E-911 Central Dispatch building.
Tie-barred to the motion was a resolution declaring intent to reimburse for public improvement expenditures.