Plans to renovate the county courthouse in Ashville are moving ahead with construction bids expected to be let by August.Mike Rutland of 2WR Architects, the design firm handling the renovation plans and drawings, presented the latest set of drawings to county commissioners during last Thursday’s work session in Ashville.
“We’ve completed about 65 percent of the documentation need and we’ve submitted plans to the Building Commission,” Rutland said.
Rutland said the current timetable shows the county beginning advertising for the project by May 29 and potentially receiving bids by August 5.
He added that it was time for commissioners to start considering moving county offices out of the courthouse and into rental property recently acquired by the county to house those offices during the renovation.
The plans show the new landscaping and green “people places” that will be on the new courthouse square.
As for design, the renovated courthouse would feature a new public secure entrance where people will enter from what is now considered the rear of the courthouse (the side facing the administrative building).
In the new wing, constructed on the side of the courthouse featuring the Confederate memorial, a sallyport and inmate elevator would be built to keep prisoners separate from the public at all times. Judges will also have a separate elevator from the public.
The addition is set to provide about 10,000 square-feet of additional office and court space.
As for the Confederate memorial, commissioners say it will not be moved but an accent feature added to it. A cooling tower is to be built behind the monument near the front doors. The cooling tower will put a waterfall background to the monument.
