By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Moving all the county operations out of one building into three others. Improving the air, lighting, and economics in a 100-plus-year-old courthouse. Then moving back into the courthouse. And doing it all without shutting down any county offices. Barton County's HVAC Renovation Project has nearly come to a close as operations have returned to the courthouse. Tuesday morning, in just the second meeting back in the commission chambers, Commissioner Shawn Hutchinson reflected on the project.
"The buildings we were in weren't perfect, but neither was this building when we moved out of it," he said. "It would have been very easy to do nothing and wait for it to become a catastrophe and then deal with it. Instead of that, we saw there was a need. It wasn't our money and it's not our building. This is the taxpayers of Barton County's money and the taxpayers' building. We felt an enormous responsibility to take care of that and preserve it for another 100 years, so that's what we did."
Out of their own pockets, the commissioners purchased gift cards for two county employees who went above and beyond for more than a year: County Administrator Matt Patzner and IT Director Dereck Hollingshead. Commission Chair Barb Esfeld said Hollingshead and his IT staff saved the county a lot of money.
"When the offices moved from the courthouse, they sat down at their desks and turned their computers on," she said. "That didn't happen by itself. When we came back here, we sat down and turned them on. If there was something, Dereck was like that. He was here."
The commissioners also thanked previous commissioners who built up a reserve that helped pay for the project, originally approved at $4.2 million. Much of the project was paid for using federal American Rescue Plan Act funds as a result of the COVID pandemic.
"The previous commissioners, I can't thank them enough for saving for the courthouse," Esfeld said. "People will ask us how much their taxes are going to go up. Well, your mill levy is not going to increase because of the previous commissioners putting back money because they knew this building needed taken care of and they were very good stewards of the building."
For his part, Patzner said all the credit goes to the county employees who stepped outside of their normal job descriptions to make the transitions in and out of the courthouse run smoothly with little to no interruption to public service.
"The whole reason I seemed calm is because I've got a great team behind me taking care of things," he said. "This wouldn't have been possible without the high-caliber IT team we have and everybody who has stepped up, moving their own stuff, taking care of things. I'm blessed to be in the position I am and have the support that I have."
To celebrate the completion of the project, Barton County will host tours of the renovated courthouse on Friday, May 31, beginning at 1:30 p.m. Live music and light refreshments will be served, and the first 100 people to tour the courthouse will receive a drink ticket for the Fridays on Forest event across the street later that evening.