At the top of every hour, the bell atop the county courthouse rings through downtown Franklin.
The repaired clock, a fresh paint job and new roof have the top half of the Johnson County Courthouse looking as bright as the holiday lights that surround it.
The bulk of the year-long $1.04 million project wrapped up earlier this fall, and the bell began to chime again recently.
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The contractor, Franklin-based Kammerling Construction, LLC, was delayed a few months by supply shortages due to the coronavirus pandemic, but was still able to finish the project a month before the contract expired, Johnson County commissioner Brian Baird said.
Not only did Kammerling come in significantly lower than other bidders, but the company did a great job sprucing up one of the most recognizable landmarks in its hometown, Baird said. With work to key parts of the exterior, the building will be sound for years to come, he said.
Parts of the historic building’s exterior began to border on unsafe. Notably, the slate roof had begun to deteriorate, Baird said.
“It would have just kept deteriorating. The slate coming off the roof would have starting falling off and that would have been a safety hazard,” he said.
The project was initially expected to cost $1 million, but along the way, the commissioners decided to tack on a few additions that had been included in the overall bid package, Baird said. The county paid for the project with a General Obligation bond the Johnson County Council approved in 2019.
The add-ons were approved because it made sense to the commissioners to do all the repairs that require a crane while one was readily available, Baird said. Repairs to the courthouse foundation were also added because flooding in the Johnson County Voter Registration office grew worse this year, and the source of the flooding was finally found, he said.
The add-ons tallied to around $4,200, which was still inside the amount the commissioners had allotted as a contingency fund.
Baird, who oversees most county building projects, is looking at next steps to renovate the courthouse and other county buildings, he said.
At the courthouse, more exterior work is needed, such as brick repairs and tuckpointing along the bottom half, as well as sidewalk repairs and fixing up the fountain and monuments on the courthouse square, Baird said.
Though more work is needed, it is no longer a priority. Johnson County Community Corrections is in great need of more space, he said.
“There’s plenty of stuff to do. Whether we can do that (courthouse work) with a bond, we will see. It isn’t the top of the priority list,” Baird said.
A new home for Community Corrections was among Baird’s goals for his third term as commissioner. It was also a re-election goal for County Council member John Myers.
Now, they’ll be tasked with making that goal a reality while navigating budget shortfalls in the next few years, Baird said.
The hope is to build a new county annex to house both an expanded space for Community Corrections as well as departments such as the Johnson County Health Department that rent office spaces. The new annex would be located in a county-owned vacant lot at Drake Road and Hospital Road in Franklin, he said.
