CASSOPOLIS — Yet another direction on where Cass County leaders may take its ongoing project to save the 1899 courthouse is now on the table.

Several weeks after Cass County Board of Commissioners shelved a vote on whether or not to retain ownership of its former seat of government, officials will soon consider handing the reins of the renovation project over to the Cass County Economic Development Corporation. On Thursday, Oct. 12, the commissioners will host a work study session, where EDC Chairman Troy Clay will present the organization’s proposal to take over stewardship of the historic structure, located next to the county building at the corner of Broadway and State streets in downtown Cassopolis.

Clay and other leaders with the EDC will look to create a nonprofit organization that manage abandoned and blighted properties across the county in order to rehab them and get them back on the market, Clay said. The organization will be led by a board of local experts, such as architects or engineers, who will work to secure grant funding and take charge of other tasks in order to restore old properties.

Should the commissioners decide to take the corporation up on its offer, the nonprofit would make the vintage courthouse its first project, Clay said.

“This is a classic example of what the EDC is designed to do,” Clay said. “We can step in, take over a property that has been stagnant and has been an issue for county leaders, and make it into an asset for the county and downtown Cassopolis.”

Clay initially presented this idea to the Cass County Board of Commissioners during a meeting in late August, shortly after the board decided to defer a vote that would decide whether the county would retain ownership of the structure and look into creating a millage to raise funds to renovate the building, or decide to sell it to a private developer. The board decided to table the decision in order to consider other potential avenues, said Cass County Administrator Karen Folks.

The EDC chairman said he decided to present the idea to the commissioners after talking with Harry Shaffer, another member of the board, who came up with the idea of creating a nonprofit organization to take over management of the historic courthouse.

The board was receptive to the idea, and asked Clay to develop a more extensive plan to present to the them at a later date.

“We thought, ‘how did we miss this?’” Folks said. “It makes such logical sense for the EDC to get involved with this process.”

Cass County leaders have spent the last several years attempting to find a solution for what to do with the vintage courthouse, which has been closed since the opening of the Cass County Law and Courts Building in 2003. Since being mothballed, the structure has suffered from water and mold damage, though, thanks to more than $200,000 worth of repairs made to the building since 2014, it is currently in stable condition.

Clay worked with other members on the board of the EDC — including Folks — to develop the plan for the nonprofit. The board also gave the go ahead to the request to the county to take over ownership of the courthouse.

Although the county would lose ownership of the building under the EDC’s solution, Cass County residents would still have a say in the direction the nonprofit would steer the renovation project, as the meetings will be conducted in public, Clay said.

A number of residents who have learned of the EDC’s proposal have thrown their support behind it, creating an online petition calling for residents to encourage the commissioners to adopt the plan. The form, located at thepetitionsite.com, had received 113 signatures as of Wednesday afternoon.

Clay said he has gotten a similarly positive vibe from the people he has spoken to about the proposal.

“There seems to be renewed and refreshed sentiment toward the courthouse, that we are going in the right direction with this,” Clay said.