Mar 8, 2024 By Mike Jones 4 min read

Washington County officials are looking to build a new public safety building on the site of the Courthouse Square office complex, which will likely have to be demolished.

The county commissioners unanimously approved a motion during their Thursday afternoon meeting to pay $236,000 to Pittsburgh-based WTW Architects to perform the “pre-design and conceptual design” for the new public safety building.

The design of the new center and how much it will cost to construct is not known, but county Public Safety Director Gerry Coleman said he expects it to be a state-of-the-art facility with advancements in technology required for modern-day emergency services.

“We need to be able to grow with the needs of the county as it grows,” Coleman said. “We’ve kind of outgrown the space we’re in now. I’m extremely happy to be a part of a project that’s going to take public safety into the future, and I’m happy the commissioners are supporting funding such a project.”

The facility will include a larger dispatch center, newer technology and upgraded security features, Coleman said. The current public safety center is located within the Courthouse Square complex.

“We’re in the very beginning, beginning stages of discussions,” Coleman said. “The new facility will be able to take us into the future as we grow.”

The emergency services staff will likely be moved to the county airport while demolition and construction commences. However, it’s not known where other county employees will go if Courthouse Square is demolished since several courthouse filings offices and the sheriff are among the many departments housed in that building.

The decision to build on that site seems to indicate that a second study performed years ago to determine the viability of renovating the Courthouse Square, which was built in the 1970s, revealed that it was either cost-prohibitive or unrealistic. The commissioners learned in early 2020 that it would cost about $10 million to repair the leaking parking garage and update the office space. The second study, which was not revealed, apparently was not feasible, although the commissioners signaled their intent to make repairs last August.

The new project was revealed during the commissioners’ workshop meeting Wednesday in which Commissioner Chairman Nick Sherman announced there would be a “demo and build,” indicating the Courthouse Square office building would have to be razed in order to construct the new public safety center.

In response, there were apparently meeting sessions between county officials on Thursday afternoon and this morning with six building contractors to discuss preliminary design concepts. It’s not known who from the county attended, but it appears that the commissioners were not included in the Thursday afternoon session since they all appeared together for their bimonthly meeting.

Commissioner Larry Maggi said Wednesday that he was unaware of the sessions until he fielded calls from several contractors who were upset that they were not invited to the presentations. Chief of Staff Daryl Price said nine contractors were invited, although he did not have an explanation on how they were chosen.

Maggi raised concerns about the appearance of “impropriety” by inviting only select contractors rather than putting out a general announcement and inviting any company to attend.

County solicitor Gary Sweat said he did not think it would be an issue because it was meant to be a question and answer session on the project, which has not been put out for bid yet.

“I look at this as more informational than anything else … to determine the scope of work,” Sweat said during Wednesday’s workshop meeting.

The Observer-Reporter submitted an open records request Wednesday asking for all correspondence, including invites and responses, with the nine contractors who were invited to the meetings. The county had not responded to the request as of Thursday afternoon.