THE FOLLOWING STORY IS BY BILL PICKETT
More improvements are slated at the Joseph G Cannon Building and Rita B. Garman Vermilion County Courthouse in Downtown Danville. Bill Pickett has the story.
County Board Chairman Steve Miller outlines the plans…
AUDIO: We have roughly a $3 million proposal for improving the courthouse, which is a major tuckpointing project. And improvements at the Cannon Building, which is some further tuckpointing and a project for a new elevator; and to roof a portion of the building that has a cooling tower on it that needs some improvements made to it.
The County Board’s Finance and Personnel Committee recommended last (Monday) evening that the full County Board approve the work. Miller explained where the funds are coming from for the projects.
AUDIO: A good deal of it is money that has already been committed to projects that actually cost less than we anticipated. Some of it is ARPA money that is left over. A good deal of the money is from a law enforcement fund, which is a quarter-cent sales tax fund that that county receives. And just monies that had already been approved for capital improvements; appropriated for capital improvements in this year’s budget.
Need for work on the elevator at the Joseph G. Cannon Building has been discussed for years.
AUDIO: That can has been kicked down the road for many, many years. And the elevator is working suitably sufficient now, but it was first constructed in the Kennedy Administration. And so, even though it’s been updated, a lot of the controls are more difficult to find now. So we just wish to modernize the elevator so we’re not caught with it not working.
Miller says work on replacing the cooling tower and some roof work at the Cannon Building will likely begin soon. Some tuckpointing will likely begin later this year, and work on renovating the elevator at the Cannon Building is expected to begin late this year and be completed by early February of next year.
