The Clarion County Courthouse has had some renovation, but that work is only the tip of the iceberg. Clarion County Commissioners Ted Tharan and Wayne Brosius on Friday outlined their plans for future renovations. Commissioner Ed Heasley was unavailable.
“We have renovated the main courtroom with new furniture, new windows,” Brosius said. “Courtroom Two has been redone. We will be working on the basement and the HVAC system.”
Tharan said architect Amos Rudolph is currently drawing the plans for the basement project, and President Judge Sara Seidle-Patton has approved a preliminary set of plans. She requested Domestic Relations be moved into the courthouse. That department will go into the left side of the basement, where the deputy’s break room is now.
“They will have added security when they move in here with the Sheriff’s Department just across the hallway,” Brosius said. The offices will still have check-in windows and identity cards will be used for entry purposes.
Tharan said a constable was hired to provide security at Domestic Relations, “but after the renovations are complete and they move in here that position can be eliminated because the deputies are here.”
Tharan said the deputies would be moved to the right side of the basement, but the sheriff’s office would remain on the left side. The boiler room would remain in the same area, but the restrooms on the right side would be renovated. The bathrooms will be completely refurbished. In addition, two restrooms will be installed on the second floor.
Tharan said the courthouse is not currently compliant with the Americans with Disability Act. “We need to address that.”
The building is on the National Register of Historic Buildings and the work has to be cleared by that board.
“They also want us to leave the terrazzo floor in the basement. We would like to take the basement back to what it would have looked like in the 1800s. There are wall panels and old doors in the attic that we will probably use. We don’t like to destroy anything historical.”
Tharan said that the basement floor was mud until the 20th century, and that it contained a shooting range.
Tharan said included in the basement project will be an in-house generation system in case of power outages and that the current system only services the emergency lighting.
“Something has to be done with the heating system,” Tharan said. “Over the past two years, we have had five of the old cast iron pipes break. There are only two thermostats in the building and a new system would give each room its own thermostat. A lot of the steam traps are junk. It was put in back in the 1930s.”
“The new system will be redundant,” Brosius said.
“We have plans for a new rear entry that will provide a roof and another door that will provide an air lock and a new set of steps,” Tharan said. “The attic needs insulation and the cooling system in the attic for the courtroom is junk.
“We want to do this as cost efficiently as possible and keep things as historical as possible,” Brosius said.