After spending several months doing their homework, members of the Cass County Board of Commissioners will meet early next month to begin ironing out a plan of action for the county’s vintage courthouse.

The board will conduct a work-study session from 4 to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 13, inside the Kincheloe Room on the first floor of the county annex, located at 120 N. Broadway St., Cassopolis. The meeting will be open to the public.

The commissioners will use the work session to help determine what course to take the ongoing project to renovate the 1899 vintage courthouse, located next to the county building at the corner of Broadway and State streets downtown. The board has spent the last several years discussing options on what to do with the historic building, which has been closed to the public since the opening of the Cass County Law and Courts building outside the village in 2003.

“I think [the commissioners] need to have a full discussion about where we are at with the courthouse project, what avenues are available to them and to determine the various mechanisms or processes they would like to put in place to help them with the project,” said Cass County Administrator Karen Folks.

Thus far, a subcommittee with the board has overseen the project, hosting a number of public meetings and forums since 2014 to discuss what do with the 118-year-old structure. The committee has discussed several possibilities what to do with the structure, including retaining county ownership and moving governmental operations back over to the building, or transferring ownership to a private developer, which could transform it into office space, a restaurant or other uses.

The board has spent around $200,000 to stabilize the courthouse, which has suffered from mold and moisture damage since its closure.  The structure has a new heating/cooling system installed, as well as a new roof, though the county has yet to remove the mold that has developed inside it.

The June 13 meeting comes on the heels of several public forums the county hosted over last several months, during which representatives from various state and national agencies discussed funding mechanisms, possible uses once the courthouse is refit for occupation and other subjects.

Several possible directions on where to steer the project emerged from the meetings, including selling the structure to a private developer or issuing a millage to publically fund renovation work.

During the board’s committee of the whole meeting Tuesday morning, the commissioners discussed the possibility of reaching out to county residents to inform them of the status of the courthouse project and to solicit feedback on which direction to take it. An attendee of one of the previous courthouse forums suggested the idea, prompting the leaders to weigh it over Tuesday.

Among the suggestions the commissioners discussed was issuing a flier in the mail updating residents on the status of the project. The board also mulled over the possibility of creating a phone hotline, where residents could dial a number and answer a short survey on what they would like to see the board do with the mothballed structure.

The board did not make any decisions Tuesday on whether or not proceed with these plans, though the topic may come up during the June 13 session, Folks said.