The Cole County Commission has directed officials at Architects Alliance to come back in two weeks with cost estimates for two options on what to do with space left at the old county jail and sheriff's house behind the county courthouse.
At a meeting Tuesday, one plan calls for the remodeled sally port to be left on the ground floor and the three floors above it torn down and rebuilt.
The other plan would keep the existing shell of the jail and sheriff's house in place, fix the three floors above the sally port and develop a plan to access each floor with stairs, elevators or both of those. The floors in the old jail do not align with the courthouse.
Along with the cost estimates, commissioners would like to see the maximum amount of space there could be on each floor in both plans.
All this comes as the commission tries to develop a master plan for how best to use county building space for the next five to 20 years.
Commissioners agreed that a courtroom should be in the new area, but the rest could be used for office space.
"Right now, I'd be in favor of doing the new floors in light of the condition of the Carnegie Building," said Western District Commissioner Kris Scheperle. "We have security issues, and a new courtroom is needed."
Building Maintenance Director Greg Camp said the Carnegie Building is currently in good shape, but will need upgrades and repairs in the next five years.
"I understand your feelings because it is a cash cow as far as utility costs, but it could be used as a storage facility very easily," Camp said.
Commissioners have agreed they'd like to move the county assessor and the public defender's offices out of Carnegie.
Eastern District Commissioner Jeff Hoelscher has been spearheading the effort to get a plan together. Although he said he was leaning toward a plan to keep the shell of the jail and sheriff's house and work within that, he said his mind could easily be changed because it will come down to costs as to what the commission will do.
"Right now, nobody wants to move their offices to another place," he said. "We'll have to see what the new space will look like. I know we all want to see us get an area where we can have both the assessor and collector in the same space since they interact so much."
"I know this may not be popular, but we are the landlord," said Presiding Commissioner Marc Ellinger. "The law calls for us to provide the space for the offices, but they don't have a say as to where they go. I do believe we should meet with all the officeholders after we get these plans done so we can find out more about their needs."
As far as historical preservation issues, Ellinger said that shouldn't be a problem with the jail and sheriff's office. The county did take money from the federal government to improve windows on the federal courthouse in the 1970s, but not at the old jail and sheriff's house. They would have to make sure the improvement work would not jeopardize the courthouse.
To pay for the work, commissioners could look at using money from county reserves, money from the county half-cent sales tax or using some of the $500,000 left in a receivership fund that they took money from to put in storm sirens around the county.