Lee County courthouse closer to facelift

LEESBURG — At a glance, anyone who passes by the historic Lee County Courthouse in downtown Leesburg on a regular basis might think the old girl looks pretty good as she nears her 100th birthday. But, upon close inspection, it’s easy to spot what County Commission Chairman Rick Muggridge describes as “battle wounds.”

Over the years, the corners of the building’s metal eaves have begun to rust away, pieces of wood are pocked with rot, age line-like cracks and fissures spiderweb through the brick and mortar, and even the majestic, copper-colored dome that reflects the south Georgia sun is warped and bent.

In short, with an up-close-and-personal inspection of one of the county’s most impressive and important structures, it’s easy to see that repairs and renovations are sorely needed.

That is why this week, a little more than a year before the courthouse’s 100th anniversary, the local government is requesting bids to give the top exterior a much-needed face lift.

“We’ve got a lot of gaps in the mortar mix, we’ve got some roof issues up there as far as some creases and stuff like that,” explained interim county co-manager Mike Sistrunk. “There’s nothing that’s going to fall apart on us, it’s just things that need to be addressed now before they become a problem. You know, mortar and brick and stuff like that, that’s 100 years old, is going to have some cracks in it, going to have some gaps.”

Additionally, Sistrunk said the project will include some painting as well as major repairs to the dome on top of the clock tower.

Sistrunk said the current project is expected to use up the majority of the $400,000 in SPLOST IV funding the county set aside for the renovations, and if everything goes as expected, the work should start this summer and be completed in time for a planned 100-year anniversary celebration.

As part of the bid process, Sistrunk said the county will host a mandatory pre-bid meeting Tuesday at 2 p.m., where county officials will go over the finer points of what work needs to be done. Then prospective contractors will have until 2 p.m. on May 24 to submit their final bids.

Once the bids are in, the County Commission is expected to approve the lowest qualified bid at its first June meeting, meaning the work can begin shortly thereafter.

“We’d love to see work started in July or August, that would be great,” said Sistrunk. “We’re hoping they can have all this work done by June of next year. They estimate it’s going to take between eight and nine months to do the restoration work after we get the bids out.”

Sistrunk said the scope of the renovations is outlined in a document created by Bill Walter of Masonry Restoration Technologies and Services LLC, which specializes in courthouse restorations and will oversee the work in progress.

“We had a gentleman that came down here, probably back in August of last year, and he basically went through the whole building, inside and out,” said Sistrunk. “He came through here and gave us a list of what he saw as structurally sound and what we had issues with that we need to work on.”

Not only did Sistrunk praise the complete breakdown Walter provided to the county, he also had praise for the County Commission, and Muggridge, who he said is a champion of the renovation project.

“Mr. Muggridge really got on a roll about wanting to do something with the courthouse,” Sistrunk said. “He knew the 100-year anniversary was coming up, and he just said, ‘We really need to concentrate on this.’ I think all the commissioners want to do it, don’t get me wrong, I think this is something they’ve all been asking about. They don’t do anything without all of them talking.”

Although the decision to move forward with renovations was made by the entire board, Muggridge said seeing the courthouse restored to its former glory will be personally satisfying.

“The courthouse, and county government, is a passion of mine,” Muggridge said. “First and foremost, as an elected official, before I do anything else I need to make sure we take care of the county’s assets. That means if roads need to be paved, we pave them; if buildings need repair, need new air conditioning units, we’ll take care of that. We don’t let them go downhill. We need to turn them over to the next generation in as good a shape, or better, than when we found them. The courthouse is the seat of our local government. It’s our home. We need to take care of it.”

Muggridge said that he, like many citizens, has a special place in his heart for the courthouse, and he’s quick to point out that every long-time resident of the county ultimately has some connection to the historic building.

“Everybody gets to the courthouse sooner or later,” the commission chairman said. “When you’re born, your birth certificate is filed at the courthouse, and when you die, your death certificate is filed at the courthouse. When you get married, when you get divorced … that’s all kept at the courthouse. We used to vote at the county courthouse. It really is the seat of all things in Lee County.”

Both Muggridge and Sistrunk pointed out that the current project is just one phase of a larger scope of work being done at the courthouse. Part of the interior of the building has already been improved, and more work is expected in the future.

Muggridge said he’d like to see some rearrangement of space inside to allow some of the county’s historical documents to be displayed, and Sistrunk said even after the top part of the building is fixed, more work will need to be done to the bottom half as well.

“Hopefully, in the next SPLOST we can come back and start doing some work to the bottom end of it,” said Sistrunk. “But the big thing is to try to get this work done to the top, the most critical part that needs to be done. We’d love to have a good celebration for the 100-year anniversary. We’re hoping that this is going to really change the appearance of the courthouse and make it a lot more durable, at least for another 100 years.”