Estimated $3.2 million in courthouse work on commission agenda – The Hutchinson News

The Reno County Commission on Tuesday will review plans for four major restoration or repair projects at the Reno County Courthouse that are cumulatively estimated to cost more than $3.2 million.

The largest project, which is expected to take a year to complete, is the repair and restoration of deteriorating windows on the historic six-story building, estimated at just under $1.6 million.

Other work, which will be partially covered by insurance, is for more than $1 million in structural and plaster repair work for damages from last years pair of 4.0-plus magnitude earthquakes.

The final project is a proposed general weatherization and tuck-pointing maintenance project recommended to occur every 10 years, now a year overdue, on the outside of the building.

Reno County maintenance director Harlen Depew will update the commission on the four projects, including updated cost estimates, funding recommendations, and project timing. No action is scheduled to be taken by the board.

Windows

According to a memo from Depew, all but a handful of the 212 windows in the 91-year-old courthouse are original to the building. Since the building is a registered national historic place, replacing the windows is an option the Kansas State Historical Society would likely not approve.

In December, the county commission contracted with Wichita-based GLMV Architecture to put together bid documents for the window project.

The length of the project is dictated by the window sashes having to be removed from their frames a few at a time and taken to a contractor shop for restoration work, Depew noted.

The window frames themselves are anchored in the walls of the building, and so will have to be restored on site.

"There is a lot of plaster repair within many of the window openings from years of sunlight, condensation, and in some cases, water infiltration, that will need to be completed as part of the project," Depew said.

Another cost is removing and then rebuilding various trim materials that have been added in different locations during interior remodeling projects over the years that obstruct access to the window frames.

Other issues

Theres also a unique issue on the west side of the building.

"When the building was constructed, the west side of the third floor, where the Division II courtroom is now located, was a mirror image of the east side courtroom, which is two stories high," Depew said.

The west side, however, was left unfinished with the intent of finishing out a second "grand courtroom" in the future.

When a decision was finally made to add a second courtroom on the third floor, "presumably sometime during the 1960s," Depew said, it was created only as a single-story courtroom, with a floor added above it to create the Division IV courtroom on the fourth floor.

When that was done, new wood stud frame walls were built on the interior of the original exterior west wall of the building, which covered up the tall windows on that side of the building and made them inaccessible. The new walls were filled with insulation, which is visible through windows and has started to sag in places.

"During the window restoration project, this wall will need to be opened up to gain access to the windows, and we would recommend that we take this opportunity to clean up this visual eyesore by finishing out the walls in a way that will once again reveal these windows from inside the building," Depew said.

"Doing so will provide natural light to the third and fourth floors and leave the restored windows accessible from inside the building for future maintenance purposes," he said.

Replacing non-functional blinds or other window treatments in some of the windows is also included in the cost.

The $1.597 million project estimate from Pishney Restoration Services is based on the project being done in a single phase. If spread out over multiple phases, the cost would be expected to ride, Depew said.

Weatherization

The window project as well as the one to weatherize and tuck-point the outside of the building, estimated at more than $604,000 should qualify for a 25% reimbursement through Kansas income tax credits, Depew said.

The weatherization project must be done periodically to maintain the integrity of the stone and masonry exterior of the building.

The work consists of an inspection of the building exterior which will be done using drone photography then cleaning all the surfaces, patching or replacing any broken material, cutting out and replacing deteriorating mortar joints, caulking around doors, windows and other penetrations, and finally applying a water repellant product to the surface.

Since the building was listed as a historic place in 1999, weatherization projects have been done twice.

Since there is no longer a Reno County-based architect that specializes in historic restoration projects, however, Depew is recommending contracting with GLMV to do the drone photography and create project specifications for up to $93,000, which is not included in the project estimate.

Earthquake damage

In August 2019, a 4.2 magnitude earthquake caused significant damage to the upper dome of the building, shifting stone slabs, blowing out mortar joints between them and leaving some stones significantly out of alignment, Depew reported.

Temporary repairs were done in late 2019 to seal up the open joints to prevent freeze-thaw damage, pending the creation of a plan to make permanent repairs.

Hutchinson structural engineer Brent Engelland determined through 3D modeling that adding reinforcement to the steel trusses in the roof system will be required under modern building codes, but it would also minimize the chance of repeat damage from future quakes.

The estimate for repairs, which includes the added steel, disassembling the stone veneer on the dome to reset it properly, and new mortar and caulking is about $420,800. Architectural services are another $94,500.

Since the expense should be covered by the countys insurance coverage, the project is not eligible for tax credits.

Besides the doom repairs, an initial estimate for plaster repairs is around $600,000, Depew said, which should also be covered by insurance.

Timing

Depew is recommending the weatherization and earthquake repairs to the dome be done this summer, using Capital Improvement Project dollars in the 2020 budget, and that the window and plaster projects be done in 2021.

"(We) would be able to fund the windows through our CIP fund, or the Board may wish to consider utilizing the Public Building Commission as a means of funding this project over several years," Depews memo said.

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Estimated $3.2 million in courthouse work on commission agenda - The Hutchinson News