T-L Photos/SHELLEY HANSON THE BELMONT County Courthouse was built in 1886 and features a clock tower and ornate decorations including a lifesized lady justice, eagles and urns.

THE interior of the Belmont County Courthouse features stained glass windows that can be seen via the fourth floor’s ceiling.

AN URN is one of the ornate decorations on the Belmont County Courthouse.

A FIERCE looking eagle perches atop of the Belmont County Courthouse in St. Clairsville.

ORNATE ORIGINAL woodwork adorns the fourth floor lobby area of the Belmont County Courthouse.

A LIFESIZED statue of “lady justice” sits atop the Belmont County Courthouse in St. Clairsville.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — On a clear day, one can see the towering Belmont County Courthouse for miles around.

Built in 1886, the ornate building is one of the best-maintained courthouses in the state of Ohio, said Chris Widener, architect with Widener Division Construction, Columbus, Ohio.

“This courthouse is one of the more famous and definitely one of the most well-maintained buildings we’ve seen, but there are huge challenges for county commissioners all over the state of Ohio to upkeep buildings that were built in the mid-1800s and try to afford the maintenance and repair that it takes to keep these facilities safe, sound and secure for generations to come,” Widener said.

Widener’s firm was in charge of planning the work to rehabilitate the building’s exterior. Bids for the project were opened last week. Coon Restoration & Sealants Inc. of Louisville, Ohio, was awarded the job with a bid of $2,029,500.

The project will include masonry repairs, painting and roof repairs. Widener was charged with analyzing the bids submitted to the Belmont County Commission.

“We took bids for masonry, sheet metal repair, roofing and painting. This is the culmination of the last four and a half months work of design and bidding effort. We had more than 30 different contractors at the pre-bid meeting that looked at these aspects of work and re-looked at the building several times prior to (Wednesday’s) bid opening,” Widener said last week.

The original cost estimate was $1.8 million for the combined work.

“We contacted more than 50 different companies around the state and actually tri-state area that we knew had expertise in this area, along with the standard public bid notification,” he said, adding the county commissioners contacted construction trade organizations in the county to ensure that they were all aware of the project.

The courthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is the centerpiece of the county and sits in the city of St. Clairsville’s downtown. On a typical weekday, foot traffic in and out of the courthouse keeps the downtown busy. In addition to courtrooms, the building houses the county’s offices including commission, auditor and more. The courthouse features a clock tower and ornate decorations including a lifesized lady justice, eagles and urns.

Widener noted that each bid included the proposed work and price.

“The reason we contacted contractors we’ve known and we’ve been working on projects like this for the last 30 years and we contacted contractors who do this kind of work. This is in downtown St. Clairsville. It’s going to be a challenge for the contractors to work on the building and the site in the downtown area. We’ve had great cooperation with the city and the county’s facility department to lay out a phased schedule approach about how this work will be going,” he said.

“There’s some issues we want to get resolved this fall. There’s some masonry units that we’d like to remove and reinstall to make sure they’re solid and secured to the rest of the building, and they we have allowed for the majority of restoration … to occur next spring once we hit better weather, so we were really flexible with the bidders in terms of when we wanted certain aspects of the work done, and they obviously understood and responded with their bids.”

During the project, scaffolding will be used around the building’s exterior.

“The contractor will use a variety of methods, but … some of these large masonry units need to be taken out and reset because they’ve somewhat separated from the existing courthouse walls. They’ll have to erect a structural scaffolding, but they’ll probably use a variety of scaffolding and lifts and other sorts of things to work around all four sides of the building,” he said.

Widener said efforts will be made to prevent inconvenience to the public who continue to use the courthouse.

“To gain access to the courthouse, we asked contractors to maintain the current entrance, the secured entrance on the south side from the main street, but there are obviously going to be dates and times that we are working with the courts and the judges and elected officials to have these contractors move around all four sides of the building over the next year to get this work done.”

According to information from the county commission, construction of the courthouse was completed in 1886 for about $200,000. It was built at the site of the former (Thomas) Frasier Hostelry.

“The site was selected after a 25-year ‘county seat war’ between the townships of Richland and Pultney, which was where the original county seat had been located,” according to historical information from the commission.

An 1885 description of the building plans notes the columns would project an “effect of massiveness and strength.” In 1978, it was noted a recent remodeling of the building cost $1.2 million.

Staff Writer Shelley Hanson contributed to this report.