Members of the Shawano County Public Property Committee on Sept. 18 narrowed the options to consider for new government buildings, including remodeling the current courthouse.
Cory Beyer, of Venture Architects, presented the options. After the list was narrowed, Kurt Berner, of The Samuels Group, said he would return next month with cost estimates for the work that would most likely be done in phases.
“There will be sticker shock,” Berner warned the committee.
The options, which have various building phases, include a new judicial center to house the sheriff’s department, jail, courtrooms and other judicial offices combined with the Huber facility at the Huber site on Engel Drive.
A new government center would either be built on the block behind the current courthouse or moved to the Department of Human Services campus on Anderson Avenue.
Jim Davel, administrative coordinator, said regardless of which option is chosen, the county will need to buy more land. However, the purchase price could possibly be offset with the sale of some current county land.
For example, if the government center is moved to the DHS campus, the land of the existing courthouse and the houses owned by the county behind it could be sold. Or, if the law enforcement center is moved to the Engel Drive site, the current site of the sheriff’s department and jail could be sold.
Berner said the next phase will be to determine the expenses, with equal space given to potential income. There continues to be talk about remodeling part of the Huber site as a place to house juveniles; that space could be leased to other counties and provide a revenue stream for Shawano County.
Davel said the city of Shawano agreed to turn over the parking lot behind the public library to the county. Near the last phase of any building project would be to build a new library on the site of the parking lot and then turn the site of the current library into a parking lot.
Supervisor Al Kuhn said Berner also needs to run numbers on what it would cost to remodel the existing courthouse. He said taxpayers will want to know that cost when it comes to making a final decision.
Berner said he also wants to provide information on what the possible projects will mean to taxpayers, but he may not have those figures until November.
In the first option, the judicial office and jail support would be done first, followed by county government in the second phase, law enforcement in the third phase, juvenile in the fourth and library in the fifth phase.
Another option is to complete all of the judicial offices, law enforcement and jail in a first phase, followed by county government in phase two, the library in the third phase and juvenile in the fourth.
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