Perry County Tribune:
Saving Our Perry County Courthouse – Why We Should, and How!
Throughout my adult life working for the Perry Soil and Water Conservation District, I have admired our County courthouse. It’s red sandstone construction makes it unique to the State of Ohio. As your County Commissioner I am committed to insuring our courthouse is repaired and restored. For a small county like Perry County, funding such repairs can be difficult. Since 2017, my first year in office we have been able to set aside funds into our Capital improvement lines within the county budget, to make this possible. The following is an article I wrote May, 19, 2023 with a very detailed timeline for the Courthouse. This will feature a link to a page where construction updates dating from project start to completion will be posted.
Our Perry County Court house was built in 1887 and is actually the 5th building to serve as Court House of Perry County.
(1) Perry County was established in 1817, the new County Commissioners and courts met for the first two years at John Fink’s tavern on Pigs Foot Square in Somerset.
(2) 1819-1829 County Officials began using their newly completed jail as a courthouse. It was a jail more than anything else, but a courtroom was provided on the second floor.
(3) In 1829 after three years of construction the new Courthouse on Somerset’s public Square was opened, and has continued as the Courthouse for the village of Somerset. With that it has the notoriety of being Ohio’s longest continuously operated Courthouse.
(4) Almost from the beginning of our County History, the village of New Lexington worked to become the county seat. After numerous elections, and decisions by the Supreme Court, the county offices left Somerset for the upstart community of New Lexington, in 1857 leaving the Courthouse on the public square to the village of Somerset. This first courthouse in New Lexington was “not” paid for by the taxpayers. The advocates of New Lexington as county seat had to raise the necessary funds to build through private donations. This was one of the stipulations of the state law that permitted the relocation of the county seat.
(5) As the original courthouse became inadequate due to size the current courthouse was built in 1887 and dedicated one year later. Designed by Joseph W. Yost, it was built at a cost of $143,000. If we value that cost to the value of money in 2023, the cost would be, $4,528,810.
Fast forward to today. The building is 136 years old and is in desperate need of some maintenance. I am going to assume that most folks around Perry County have heard bits and pieces of some work that will be taking place on our Court House this year. I wanted to take a moment to try to caption in some detail the work that is planned and why.
When I took office in 2017, the project of replacing the front steps was underway, but one of the most reoccurring problems I received calls about, was to report the Court house roof leaking nearly every time it rained. We also were noticing more signs of water damage to the walls of the Common Pleas Courtroom on the top floor.
As part of the planning process for the front steps some soil investigations were completed in June of 2016, at the steps, and showed some wetness problems. With that in mind the Commissioners commissioned a detailed soils investigation around the entire courthouse early in 2017 and received that report in July. The investigation completed by “Professional Service Industries Inc.” showed some extensive wetness issues around the entire courthouse.
This quickly explained why the top of the courthouse wall (beside the Sheriff’s office) had moved about 4 inches, leaning toward the Sheriff’s office building. (You can stand at the corner on Brown Street and see that separation today). So, even though the Court house sits on top of a hill the soils beneath it were saturated, but why? We ran cameras down all the down spouts from the roof. Not a single one was open and draining as designed. All that rainwater that landed on the roof was not getting away from the building.
The first thing we did was fix and open up the drains to ensure the water drained away properly and the soil needed time to dry and regain its strength and ability to hold the massive weight of this stone building.
Besides the roof, the County was once again experiencing growing pains. The court house provided space for our Common Pleas Judge, and staff, Juvenile/Probate Judge and staff, Municipal Court and Staff, our County Clerk of Courts, Recorder, Auditor, Treasurer, and Law Library.
As part of the bigger picture, we were nearing the end of nearly 30 years of a cost allocation plan payments in which Perry County Job and Family Services (JFS) paid for the building at 212 South Main.
In order to move our JFS into new facilities to better serve our County, the Commissioners approved the process to build a new JFS Opportunity Center out on County property that was part of the County Home Farm. This building will be bonded and paid for through those same State and Federal Funding sources that paid for the first building.
As JFS moves out of their original building, this has created space for the County Commissioners to move all the “non-Court Related” offices out of the Courthouse. We have Created a County Administration building at 212 South Main. Offices that are located in this new administration building are
Perry County Commissioners, Recorder, Auditor, Treasurer, Prosecutor, SWCD OCES.
May of 2020 The County Commissioners initiated a single entry to the courthouse as part of the precautions due to the Covid 19 pandemic. While this was put in place due to the pandemic, we will never be able to go back to a world with every door open for public access for security and safety reasons.
Our one public entry that is monitored by a Sheriff’s Deputy needs to be a street level entry that is compliant with the American Disability Act (ADA) standards. So, when people criticize for not using those beautiful new steps, now you know why.
In February 2022, after nearly a year of evaluating the “requests for qualifications” the Board of Commissioners engaged Schooley Caldwell as our Architect for the roof replacement, and restoration of our County Court House.
The three courts were successfully moved to temporary locations and the roof replacement and restoration of our Perry County Court house began June 1, 2023.
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Through the bidding process CK Construction was hired on July 2, 2022 as the Construction manager at risk for the repair and restoration of the Court house.
See weekly update bulletins provided by CK Construction
You may note that some weeks there are no update bulletins due to no significant changes in work from one week to the next.
