The Knox County board on Wednesday approved transferring $1 million from the county’s public safety fund to begin paying for emergency plumbing repairs due to collapsed sewer lines at the courthouse.
Vice Chair Brian Friedrich, who chairs the Ways and Means Committee, said the transfer is intended to cover initial expenses for the project, including air-quality testing of every room in the courthouse and preliminary drawings for the work.
“We moved the million out of public safety to put in the general fund to cover these upcoming bills,” Friedrich said. “There’ll be more bills than that. For now we’re only moving a million to see where we can get the other money from after we run out of this.”
County Treasurer Robin Davis told board members she created a separate budget department for the courthouse plumbing project so expenses related to the work can be tracked as they come in.
The plumbing problems at the courthouse have required the installation of portable, ADA-compliant bathrooms behind the building, which could be in place for months.
The emergency plumbing project comes as the board is exploring whether to renovate or replace the county’s aging courthouse, which was constructed in the 1880s, or move operations to another building.
Board Chair Jared Hawkinson announced at Wednesday’s meeting that a task force has now been formed to evaluate options and present their findings to the board by the end of the year.
Hawkinson said he will serve on the task force along with Friedrich and board members Pam Davidson, Josh Kramer, Cheryl Nache, Erin Pugh, and Rick Sandoval. The task force also includes two residents as at-large members: Greg Bacon and David Erickson.
“And they're going to potentially, hopefully within the first two weeks of May at least start the discussion,” Hawkinson said.
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