CASSOPOLIS — An issue that has continued to fall through the cracks in recent years was once again brought to the attention of county leaders Tuesday.

Cass County Maintenance Director Dave Dickey provided an update about the deteriorating condition of the county’s parking spaces to the board of commissioners during its committee of the whole meeting Tuesday morning in Cassopolis. The department head delivered a recent price estimate from Edwardsburg engineer Tony Leininger, who was paid by the county to survey the damage to the parking lots to county’s courthouse, county building and sheriff’s office/jail facilities.

According to the estimate, which Dickey shared with the commissioners, potential repair work to the lots would cost the county between $182,000 to $218,000 — well above the estimates Dickey had received several months ago from a pair of local construction firms.

“It has increased the cost of the project, only because he [the engineer] has identified some very serious problems beyond what I had visually seen — which I guess is a good thing that we did that,” Dickey said. “The [original estimates] would have been a waste of money, from the sounds of it.”

The engineer’s estimate calls for filling and sealing work, estimated to cost between $29,000 to $35,000; milling, estimated to cost between $40,000 to $48,000; and comprehensive replacement of parts of the lots, estimated to cost between $113,000 to $135,000.

Dickey originally discussed the issue with the board in May, where he shared estimates from Dowagiac’s Chorba Construction and Elkhart’s Quality Construction, whose representatives evaluated the same parking areas earlier this year, offering quotes of $64,000 and $38,000 for the repair work, respectively. Rather than accepting bids from the either of the two companies, the commissioners decided to put the repair work out for a formal bid, and hired Leininger to handle the preliminary engineering work to help create a request for proposal for the project.

The maintenance director has been concerned about the condition of the parking spaces for longer than just this year, however. Dickey said he began identifying problems with the paving around five or six years ago, noticing that large crevices and holes have begun to appear on the pavement — a problem that has continued to worsen over time.

During his presentation in the spring, Dickey showed that crevices as wide as 3 inches and as deep as 4 inches have emerged in some portions of the lots. The maintenance director added Tuesday that, in some portions of the county building lots, tree roots have begun to emerge from the asphalt.

Dickey said that the Law and Courts Building, located just outside the village, is in the worst shape of three, an assessment that many leaders shared.

“The Law and Courts [building] is at the critical point,” said District 4 Commissioner Roseann Marchetti. “If we don’t do anything else, we have to do that one.”

County Administrator Karen Folks agreed that the courthouse should be the priority and that leaders should begin look to allocate funding for the repairs.

Assuming the county takes action this year, Dickey said work on the repairs could begin as soon as spring.

“It [the new cost estimate] has added to the project, but there’s value added there as well,” he said. “We will have the job done right when we are done with it.”