Published: July 04, 2009 01:47 pm      

Planners get inside look at renovations

The Pittsburg County Courthouse may not look a whole lot different on the outside, but on the inside, everything has changed.

It’s been gutted to its skeletal remains, with row after row of metallic studs placed inside the building as part of a major renovation project.

Down the street on Carl Albert Parkway, a related renovation is under way at the former Public Service Co. of Oklahoma building, where work is ongoing on both the inside and the outside of the structure.

On the outside of the regular county courthouse at the corner of Second Street and Carl Albert Parkway, a major exterior brick and mortar restoration project has been completed.

“We spent around $300,000 on the brick restoration,” said Dr. James Dunagin, secretary of the Pittsburg County Economic Development Authority Oversight Committee.

Motioning toward the brick walls on the courthouse’s exterior, Dunagin said “They removed the loose mortar, cleaned it and resealed it.”

Dunagin spoke as he and other committee members prepared to take a walking tour of the courthouse, where the renovations are being financed through a sales tax approved by Pittsburg County voters.

“This is exciting,” Dunagin said as the group entered the courthouse in the stifling heat. “I haven’t been in since they gutted it.”

Committee members who walked through the courthouse included Chairman Jimmy Williams, Vice Chairman Randy Walters; Dunagin, who is the secretary, and committee member Pat Layden.

Pittsburg County Commissioner Chairman Gene Rogers, who is also the District 1 Commissioner, and Atlas Construction Building Superintendent Trent Brown joined the others on the courthouse tour.

“We’ve tried to preserve some of the architectural elements that were here,” Dunagin said, recalling how the building had originally been known as the Busby Hotel.

As they made their way through the empty building, Dunagin pounded on an interior wall.

“It’s as solid as can be,” he said, noting that the upstairs floors are reinforced concrete.

The marble flooring on the courthouse’s first floor will remain in the new structure, as will the arched glass and wooden doors which lead to some of the offices.

“The gutting and demolition are basically complete,” said Brown as the men wended their way through the virtually empty building.

Plans call for the third floor of the courthouse to be completed first, followed by the second floor and then the first floor. That way, when work on one floor is completed, there will be no need for construction work crews to have to re-enter it, except for perhaps minor reasons.

On the second floor, both the district judge and associate district judges’ courtrooms had been gutted to the studs and beams, with all furniture and everything else removed.

The total project, for the both the courthouse and the PSO annex, will cost an estimated $8 million, Dunagin said.

Plans call for the couthouse to be much more handicapped accessible.

“From the streets there will be a series of three ramps and lifts,” said Brown.

Layden said that if the county had decided to construct somewhere else instead of renovating the current structure, the building would have eventually become a rotting hull.

“It would have cost millions to tear it down, “ he said.

He’s also well aware of the history the building holds.

“My father and my grandfather practiced here,” Layden said. “I think it’s a fantastic project.”

Dunagin said the courthouse is on the National Register of Historic Places, which led to some protections for what otherwise might have been mandated, such as outside fire escapes which Dunagin felt would have clashed with the building’s historical ambiance.

“We were protected from having to put exterior attachments on its outside,” Dunagin said.

As Williams and Dunagin caught a breeze by the open second story windows in one of the gutted courtrooms, Rogers reflected on the ongoing work.

“This is quite a project,” Rogers said. “It’s amazing for me to think, growing up in Crowder and being allowed to be a commissioner, we’re getting the biggest renovation that’s been done in the history of the county.”

“I won’t get a lot of benefit out of it at my age, but maybe my kids and grandkids will.”

As the men exited the courthouse and walked up the drive between the courthouse and the adjacent Pittsburg County Historical and Geological Society, Brown showed them where a relatively small building will be constructed to house an elevator for an outside entrance to the former PSO building.

The current courthouse and the PSO building will be connected by walkways when the work is completed, according to the plans.

When renovations are complete, the former PSO building will house the District 18 district attorney’s office as well as the Pittsburg County Election Board.

Inside the PSO annex, Brown pointed to mass of cords hanging from the ceiling.

With much of the courthouse adapting to a paperless system “There will be 17 miles of data cable,” he said. “You’re modernizing a system that’s been here for 100 years.”

As the men left the building, piles of materials known as EFIS lay in stacks to be attached to the exterior walls of the former PSO building.

It looked like concrete, but it’s not. It’s described as an exterior insulation finishing system, a synthetic lightweight wall. It’s being placed over the exterior walls, with a manmade stone material covering the base of the building.

Walters pushed with his fist against one of the EFIS walls and watched it sink into the soft material.

Dunagin also felt the lightweight material which will form the outside walls of the former PSO building.

“This would bother me if it wasn’t for the masonry behind it,” Dunagin said. “I remember the ‘Three Little Pigs.’”

As the men had toured the courthouse, Dunagin said he thought it important to preserve the building.

“This is the cornerstone of our town,” he said.

Walters looked over some architectural plans and envisioned how the courthouse will look when the work is complete.

“It’s pretty impressive,” he said. “It’s going to be quite a deal when it’s done.”