Daviess County took another step toward the construction of a new Court House Annex Thursday morning.Â
     The Daviess County Council and County Commissioners held a joint public work session to discuss options on the Court House Annex project.  Architects from Lamar and Associates presented eight options based on comments heard at the series of town hall meetings which were held throughout the county.  Commission President Nathan Gabhart said the decision was to move forward on a new building.
    Gabhart said the town hall comments were taken seriously and at Gabhart explains that at a suggestion of including a basement has become part of the plans.
  Thursday’s meeting also discussed options focused on renovation of the former Old National Bank Building on Washington’s Main Street. But the cost of renovation of a 100 year old building vs the price of a new building and results of a downtown parking study pushed the County leaders to unanimously agree to choose moving forward on a new building.      Council President Mike Sprinkle echoed the opinion of the group when he said that if the County wants a building that will last 100 years, the ONB building would not be the place to invest the County’s money.
   An official vote on the project will be taken on May 10.
When asked about a time-line, the architects said that if plans for the annex are approved in early June, bids could be let in September, and construction could possibly begin in mid-October. Construction of the new annex would take between 12 and 18 months.