THE PROPOSED 29x59 addition to the east side of the Brown County courthouse and renovation of the courthouse exterior are shown in this architect’s sketch. The arch which says “courthouse” would be moved out from the present east doorway and put on the addition, as would the statue of a woman (this is a change from a previous proposal).

Bids will be opened Dec. 19 on three separate projects affecting the Brown County Courthouse.

The three jobs are remodeling the district courtroom, renovating the court-house exterior, and adding a 29-by-59-foot elevator addition.

Commissioners may accept any or all of the projects, depending on bids. Estimated cost for all three jobs is $380,000.

AN EARLIER plan to seek bids on a smaller 29-by-33-foot addition was dropped since the larger addition gives six 13 by 29offices which the smaller one would not. Architect Richard Evjen said the per-square-foot cost on the larger addition would be much lower than on the smaller addition.

The addition would have its entrance at the basement level. It would not be built flush to the courthouse but would be connected to the east side of the court-house by a 12 by 12 three-story link.

Evjen told the county board Thursday that the addition would take about six months from start to finish, the other work about three months. All three jobs would be worked on at the same time.

The county has about $400,000 in a building fund which can be used to pay for the proposed work.

THE COUNTY board has long considered adding an elevator to the court-house for the handicapped or for those who have difficulty with the stairs.

For structural reasons such an elevator can’t be put in the courthouse but has to be added on in a shell. Evjen suggested that from a cost standpoint the board might want to consider adding an office space instead of just an elevator. The addition would provide six 13 by 29 offices and two 9by 24 offices.

Commissioners believe extra room is needed for present county functions as well as for future functions which may be put on the county by the state legislature.

The county recently gained 5,600 square feet of space when the courthouse annex at 114 N. State was purchased and remodeled. Welfare and nursing departments moved out of the courthouse basement into the annex.

That vacated basement space now is used by the new county license bureau, and expanded probation and county court offices.

A STATE parole agent has asked the county for an office here as a base for his work in Brown, Nicollet and Watonwan counties but no space is currently available. The agent is located in Mankato.

Commissioners would also like to find a more convenient location for the Social Security representative who visits New Ulm every Monday. That office is located on the second floor at city hall.

The county highway department is pressed for office space at the county garage and the accounting department and engineering aides could possibly be moved to an enlarged courthouse.

The county has ordered two leased keypunching machines to start computerization of assessment records. An equipment room for these machines and copying machines used by all county offices would ideally be located next to the assessor’s office, officials said. That would mean moving the present occupant, zoning and civil defense department, to a new office.

Included in the $380,000 estimate is Evjen’s fee. The board Thursday okayed his fee to date, $21,000 based on 1,379 hours at $15 per hour plus about $350 in expenses. The contract with Evjen specified a per-hour cost rather than a percentage of the total remodeling costs as had been paid the last county architect.

TWO YEARS ago commissioners had rejected bids on remodeling the district courtroom into two separate courtrooms because there weren’t enough funds on hand.

Total cost then would have been $305,000including architect fees but not including the elevator, air-conditioning, exterior remodeling or finishing of the second (county) courtroom.

No additional space would have been provided in that project of two years ago although the county courtroom would eventually have been vacated.

New Ulm Daily Journal

Nov. 25, 1974