The Cole County Commission has awarded a contract to replace windows at the Cole County Courthouse and the County Annex.
In August, the commission received three bids for the project. On Tuesday, the commission awarded the contract to The Wilson Group of Kansas City, which had the low bid of $861,405.
The other bids were from Wisch and Vaughn Construction, which had a bid of $1,316,087, and GBH Builders, which presented a bid of $1,175,452.
The greatest cost would be to replace 99 windows at the courthouse due to incorrect installation and leakage. The cost had been estimated as high as $775,000.
Replacing windows at the annex was estimated at $250,000.
To pay for the work, $278,355 will come from reserves in the county's general fund. The rest of the cost will use up the $583,000 in a receivership fund. 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.
The county is also looking at grant funding to help pay the replacement and should know by mid-December if it will be getting any funds.
The courts have offered to help with the costs for the courthouse windows, and the schedule to replace those windows will have to go along with court schedules.
The window installation looks to start March 1 and is to be completed no later than Oct. 31.
"The courthouse windows were put in back in the mid-1970s, from what we've been able to find out," said Presiding Commissioner Sam Bushman. "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."