The largest renovation at the Bartholomew County Governmental Office Building in more than 40 years is continuing.
Upgrades on the ground floor of the four-story building at 440 Third St. in downtown Columbus may be completed either late this winter or in early spring, said county maintenance director Rick Trimpe.
The most noticeable change will involve the Bartholomew County Council chambers, which are being moved from the fourth floor to the ground level, Trimpe said. Those chambers will be located on the south side of the first floor lobby where the treasurer’s office is now located, Trimpe said.
The fourth floor space now occupied by the council chambers will likely be shared by the Bartholomew County Park Department, as well as the Indiana State Board of Accounts (ISBA), the three county commissioners said.
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It’s not unusual for the State Board of Accounts to open a temporary satellite office in a county government building to carry out a variety of chores within the region, ISBA spokesman Matt Light said.
One significant problem with the current layout is that the current first-floor restrooms, located across from the county commissioners’ offices, do not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and don’t have sufficient space to make them compliant, Trimpe said.
Therefore, the county is constructing larger, ADA-compliant restrooms immediately west of the current restroom within an expanded hallway, Trimpe said.
The space occupied by the current restrooms, as well as a section of the county auditor’s office, will become the new county treasurer’s office, he said.
When the work is competed, the public will have an interior entrance into the county commissioners’ chambers from the lobby. Currently, non-county employees must go outside the lobby and walk west toward Washington Street in order to to reach the only public entrance to the commissioners’ chambers.
Although the offices for the auditor and treasurer will be losing square footage, both departments have been scanning records and storing them electronically, auditor Pia O’Connor said. That has allowed both offices to free up a substantial amount of space simply by getting rid of bookcases full of paper binders, she said.
Entrances to all new offices and facilities will be built in the extended east-west hallway off the lobby, county commissioner Larry Kleinhenz said.
While the current renovations are the most visible, a number of facility upgrades have taken place on the upper floors in recent years. They’ve included improvements to the third floor Environmental and Vital Records division of the Bartholomew County Health Department, the second floor Veteran’s Service Office, and the Information Technology Department in the basement, Trimpe said.
But what is taking place right now is the most extensive interior remodeling since the building’s conversion into offices from the old Surrey Inn Motor Hotel in 1977, Trimpe and Kleinhenz said.
Since five members of Trimpe’s staff are doing the work themselves, the county maintenance director is hopeful he can keep total renovation costs at about $45,000.
That’s compared to well above $100,000 if the county had bid the remodeling out to a private contractor, Kleinhenz said.
“We have really been able to stretch our renovation and maintenance dollars because of the skill level of our employees,” Kleinhenz said.
An extensive amount of time and money has been spent this year to improve security at the county office building — and that is a key factor in the upgrade.
With both the commissioners and the council meeting on the first floor, the elevators can be inactivated to prevent unauthorized individuals from entering the upper three floors at night, county commissioner Carl Lienhoop said.
Although he’d like to see all the renovation completed by the end of January, Trimpe said he can’t provide guarantees.
His five-man crew has two other projects going on now that include renovating part of Judge Kelly Benjamin’s courtroom, as well as creating new offices for the Bartholomew County Soil and Water Conservation District in the county’s extension office, 783 S. Marr Road.
What has surprised Kleinhenz the most is that four different county departments have all agreed to the renovations.
“Space becomes very personal, and nobody seems to like change,” Kleinhenz said. “But this has gone very smoothly.”
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Besides extensive upgrades at the Bartholomew County Governmental Office building, five maintenance technicians are also renovating a part of Judge Kelly Benjamin’s courtroom, as well as creating new offices for the Bartholomew County Soil and Water Conservation District.
The five technicians working under the supervision of county maintenance are:
- Randy Pool
- John Maley
- John White
- Tim Reinbold
- Rich Gearhart
"They have really saved taxpayers a lot of money," Bartholomew County commissioner Larry Kleinhenz said. "It is truly unusual to have people with this level of construction experience working in county government."
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Built in the late 19th Century, the 54-room Belvedere Hotel stood on the northwest corner of Third and Franklin streets in downtown Columbus for 75 years.
On Feb. 5, 1967, fire broke out and completely destroyed the Belvedere, with damage estimated at $500,000 ($3.8 million today when adjusted for inflation.)
Nearly two years later on the site, owner Albert Suhre held a grand opening for his $1 million Surrey Motor Inn motel. The facility, which officially opened on Oct. 20, 1968, included a full restaurant, lounge and meeting rooms.
But after the Surrey Motor Inn closed on May 31, 1977, Bartholomew County government began considering the facility as a new office building.
By a vote of 6-1, the Bartholomew County Council authorized the $1 million purchase on July 11, 1977. The building was acquired by county government on Nov. 25, 1977.
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