Iberville Parish courthouse upgrades proving more costly, time consuming than expected – The Advocate

PLAQUEMINE It was only supposed to take a few weeks and cost around $2 million to upgrade the air conditioning system at the Iberville Parish courthouse, but it hasn't turned out that way.

Nearly a year later, the courthouse still looks like a construction zone, and Parish President J. Mitchell Ourso this week revealed a new structural issue that has complicated matters and could nearly double the costs to keep the building safe.

"It has been one thing after the other with that courthouse," Ourso said. "But we have to spend what we have to to make it safe."

The parish had to completely shutdown the courthouse for 12 days in July and temporarily relocate people working there to satellite offices after asbestos was discovered in the courthouse's 30-year-old heating and cooling system as contractors prepared to install upgrades.

PLAQUEMINE The Iberville Parish Courthouse is shutting down for about 12 days beginning Tu

The building houses the Iberville Parish Sheriff's Office, Clerk of Court, Assessor's Office, District Attorney's Office and some of the parish administration.

Iberville Parish Finance Director Randall Dunn said it cost the parish another $1 million to hire a contractor to perform asbestos abatement at the courthouse.

Once that work was done, work on upgrading the building's cooling system resumed but had to be done in phases to ease the burden of having to relocate so many offices that were dealing with local and state elections and conducting day-to-day court operations during the upgrades.

The HVAC system work has been done floor-by-floor and section-by-section since last fall. Contractors just recently finished upgrades for the Clerk of Court's Office, Dunn said, and are set to begin with the Sheriff's Office soon.

But just as work on the project appeared to be winding down, Mitchell revealed to the Parish Council the recent discovery of a new problem that's adding to the headaches.

"One of the contractors noticed on the west side of the building that the parapet was cracked," Ourso said.

The parish currently has closed the parking lot on the west side of the building and has installed fencing to prevent anyone from entering of exiting from that side while they work to secure another contractor to repair the roofing on the building.

"We haven't nailed down the price yet but it's probably going to take around $800,000," Ourso said.

There's no timeline yet on how long it will be when that work gets started.

"This courthouse is kind of like a big motel that we manage but it belongs to the taxpayers," Ourso said. "The public shouldn't take it for granted. It takes a lot of money to keep this thing up and running."

Follow Terry Jones on Twitter, @tjonesreporter.

See more here:
Iberville Parish courthouse upgrades proving more costly, time consuming than expected - The Advocate