Three bids to replace windows at the Cole County Courthouse and Courthouse Annex are under review by the County Commission.
Wisch and Vaughn Construction had a bid of $1,316,087.
GBH Builders presented a bid of $1,175,452.
The Wilson Group of Kansas City placed a bid of $861,405.
The greatest cost would be to replace 99 windows at the courthouse due to incorrect
installation and leakage. The cost has been estimated as high as $775,000.
Replacing windows at the annex has been estimated at $250,000.
The money to pay for this could come from the county's half-cent capital improvements sales tax or from county reserves.
The commission also has $583,000 in a receivership fund that could be used. Former Cole County Circuit Judge Tom Brown transferred the fund to the commission about eight years ago. It consists of money from untraceable owners' utility refunds in PSC rate challenge cases. Targeted for one-time purchases to benefit the community, the costs for just a few of these capital projects would easily wipe that fund out.
Presiding Commissioner Sam Bushman said Friday that the county is also looking at grant funding to help pay the replacement costs and the courts have offered to help with the costs for the courthouse windows.
"The courthouse windows were put in back in the mid-1970s, from what we've been able to find out," Bushman said. "It's hard to believe it's taken all these years to determine that those windows were put in wrong and that's caused these water problems. We'll definitely be looking more closely at the installation of these windows when they're put in."