Union County prepares to renovate its courthouse
The work will cause the county to relocate county offices for a year, including the circuit court:
The auditor, treasurer, assessor, recorder, clerk, surveyor, area plan office and the circuit court will move to the Liberty Mini Mall.
I like this: “the prosecutor and child support offices will move to the former Sugar Plum Shoppe.”
I wonder about this expense: “Architect Dann Keiser is creating a furniture layout plan for the temporary offices.”
Link.
But overall, the courthouse is long due for an overhall. Indiana has some really nice courthouses. Many are in varying states of decay. Randolph county has talked recently about abandoning its courthouse, which has some nice distinctive features, but has become highly outmoded. Indiana was put together at a time when people believed in in investing in their government, making the ideal of a well organized and civilized society manifest. This means lots of stone, marble, hardwoods, artisan carvings, etc.
I grew up in Texas, and most of the government buildings in my rural location were metal buildings on a slab. The message was clear, Texas taxpayers did not want to see their government using their hard earned dollars constructing expensive monuments to itself. The downside is feeling a little trashy hosting government business in a tin can, but the upside is the metal buildings are cheap to maintain, and when they get old, you can sell them off to someone and put up a brand new one for under a million.
Union county is planning to spend $3.13 million on its pile of rocks (that’s about $435.00 for every man, woman and child in the county, or over $1,700 for a family of 4 (finding from bonds and grants)), and it will still have a building that is 115 year old. The structure will always be slowly deteriorating, always generating costs. Indiana has a rich legacy in its many beautiful counthouses. Supporting this legacy will become increasingly difficult to justify as the entire country seems to be headed to the viewpoint of the Texans on investing in their government (keep it simple, small, and broke and it won’t bother us).
