MERCER COUNTY Commissioner worries that funds won't cover courthouse restoration

Interest earnings should help cover the costs, one commissioner said.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
MERCER, Pa. -- A cost update on the Mercer County Courthouse restoration didn't ease Commissioner Brian Beader's fear that $34 million borrowed to finance that and other projects will be enough to finish the work.
The previous board of commissioners borrowed the money in a bond issue to pay for the courthouse restoration, a new county jail, the refinancing of $3.1 million from an old bond issue, a new county electronic voting system and two new district justice offices.
Beader, who took over as chairman of the commissioners in January, said it doesn't look like $34 million is going to be enough money to get everything done.
Covering the old bond issue left the county with about $31 million to spend, and the county already has spent nearly $600,000 on the district justice offices and $870,000 on the new voting system.
The courthouse renovation is nearing completion and was expected to total around $10 million, but a report from the project architect Thursday indicated it will be "over $12 million" before it is done, Beader said.
Changes expected
Bids on the county jail construction came in at just under $18 million, but with architectural and other costs, that number is expected to reach about $20 million, and that's before any change orders to the project, which began last year, he said.
Beader said there are a number of construction changes being proposed that could boost the project even higher. The county still hasn't gone out for bids on a sewage holding tank the 266-bed jail must have.
He had no estimate on what that might cost.
"It worries me," he said, noting that the bottom line indicates the total for all of the projects could easily be about $33.5 million.
Commissioner Olivia Lazor said the county should have just about that much money to spend.
The unspent portion of the bond issue has been invested since it was borrowed in April 2001 and has earned the county about $2 million in interest, which went into the bond fund, she said.
Other sources of funds
The county also will sell the two old district justice buildings and other facilities with that money going into the bond fund as well.
Further, the state gave the county a $435,000 grant to help finance the new jail.
All of that should bring the pool of funds available for all of the projects back to about $33 million, she said.
"It will be tight," Lazor said, adding that county officials will have to be careful with the remaining dollars so that they won't have to look at borrowing more money to complete the work.
Beader said the commissioners and the county fiscal director will meet Monday to review all the figures.
gwin@vindy.com