Work continued at the courthouse over the past week and officials discussed future repairs.
Workers have been cleaning the war memorials in front of the courthouse.
On the right side of the courthouse staircase, a marker for all veterans of World War I, one for the African-American soldiers who served in the conflict and a Confederate soldier statue commemorating soldiers from the Civil War were cleaned.
County Manager Lawrence Gatewood said the total costs for planned work on the courthouse is estimated at $900,000 to $1 million over the course of the next year, pending budget approval.
He listed some of the projects that will go under that umbrella, including seals to prevent leaks and the replacement of windows and doors, each at a cost of $300,000 as well as ramps and a possible elevator to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act at a cost of $100,000.
Damage is evident on the third floor of the courthouse, especially from water. Paint peels on the ceiling and windows jut in warped frames. Plaster litters the floor while records, including tax records that are sometimes decades old, sit bound in books inside of cages nearby.
“The walls can’t support the windows,” Anson County Parks and Recreation Director and Building Maintenance Director Jeff Waisner said.
“If we don’t get started soon, the third floor will be condemned,” Gatewood said.
Gatewood said the seals would take roughly three or four months to place while replacing all of the courthouse’s 130 year old windows would take a similar length of time.
“I certainly endorse the plan,” Commission Chairwoman Anna Baucom said. “I think it’s way overdue.”
She has long said that maintaining the county’s buildings, especially the courthouse, should be a top priority.
“You could not rebuild that courthouse,” she said. “We can put some money in it and have a really, really nice building.”
A strip of sidewalk between the Sheriff’s Office and the shops on East Wade Street, located behind the shops, has also been replaced after Gatewood said a county employee fell. The concrete was pockmarked and broken.
Gatewood laid out his ideas for the County Commission’s capital projects over the upcoming year at the body’s April meeting.
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