By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
CENTREVILLE — A new budget for the renovation of the St. Joseph County courts building in Centreville was narrowly approved 4-3 by county commissioners Tuesday.
The new budget, referred to as the design development budget for the project, calls for a total of $11.5 million, which includes between $9.3 million and $9.6 million in construction costs, $1.45 million in furniture, fixtures and equipment, and $466,245 for architectural and engineering services. The new total cost is up about $1 million from the schematic design budget that was approved by commissioners back in October 2024.
With the approval, the project is now expected to go to the construction documents phase of pre-construction, which is the last phase before construction can officially begin. It is estimated the renovation would begin in earnest, if things stay on track as they are, in September.
As it was with the bonding plan approved in the same 4-3 vote back in March, the same people who voted yes and no on that voted the same on the design development budget. Voting to approve the budget were Fourth District Commissioner Luis Rosado, Second District Commissioner Rick Shaffer, Sixth District Commissioner Ken Malone, and chairman Jared Hoffmaster, who ultimately cast the tiebreaking vote. Voting against it were Fifth District Commissioner Christina Yunker, Third District Commissioner Rusty Baker, and Seventh District Commissioner Terry Conklin.
The proposed budget, now approved, was originally discussed last week during the county commission’s Executive Committee, where Jen Sawyer of the Barton Group, the county’s owner’s representative for the project, gave a rundown of what’s included in the budget and what other capital budget allocations there could be, including brick tuck pointing, elevator maintenance and re-doing the west parking lot, as well as other items being tracked that could impact the overall cost of the project and possibly drive the cost higher.
Many of the same objections those who voted against the bonding had were, in a way, the same objections they had for the design development budget vote. Yunker, in a prepared statement read during the commissioner comments section of the meeting, again expressed her disapproval of the bonding approved last month, then rattled off a list of other projects, mainly $7 million between the county’s parks and city sports complexes in Three Rivers and Sturgis that she called “not an essential government service,” that were funded by the county since 2015 that she felt the court renovation should’ve taken priority over during that time.
“I find it hard to believe the courthouse project was such a high priority when this money was used for parks and sports complexes when there was such a dire need for renovation,” Yunker said.
She then moved away from talking about the courthouse project and railed against the county having rentable venues at some of the county parks, like Covered Bridge Farm County Park and Cade Lake Campground, and stated that she would be proposing an effort to have the county get rid of those parks, as she claims they are “directly competing with tax-paying businesses” and opined that it is not “fair market competition or sound fiscal policy,” and that doing so would allow the parks department to get back to its “core mission” of “providing recreational greenspaces.”
Baker said in his comments that with how the county is financing the project, they would “be in trouble” in the next couple of years.
“The next thing that comes up that’s major, costs us any kind of money, what are we going to do? We’re spending an awful lot of money here to the tune of $20 million total,” Baker said, referencing the combined cost of the courthouse renovation in Centreville and the renovation of the new courts building in Three Rivers completed in 2024. “With the economic insecurity the way it is, the federal cuts we all know are coming that are going to be trickling down, what are we going to do? Are we going to lay people off? Cut services? I don’t know.”
In an interview following the meeting, Conklin said he believed the Centreville building should have been renovated first before Three Rivers was, and questioned if the Centreville renovation was “worth” the $11.5 million.
“I went through this building and I realize there’s things that need to be improved. Is it $11 million worth? I’m not sure of that, I’m not a construction person, but I think there’s things that have to be done,” Conklin said, later expressing concerns about the Barton Group’s performance as owner’s representative.
“I think they need to take a look at the construction consultant that’s helping with this project too; I think there’s a lot of things that we need to take a look at before I say yes to it,” Conklin said. “That’s going to come to light probably at our next meeting. I think there’s some things that have happened over the years that probably shouldn’t have happened.”
Conversely, county commission chair Jared Hoffmaster said while he agreed that the renovation should have been done earlier than now, he believed the county is in a “good position financially” to complete the project “without raising anybody’s taxes.”
“That building’s over 50 years old, and in order for us to be good stewards of the infrastructure that we have, I don’t want to pass on that burden to future generations, I want to go ahead and take care of what we have now so that future St. Joseph County residents can take advantage of it and we can provide the services we promise to our citizens,” Hoffmaster said. “I wish they would’ve done it 10 years ago, that would’ve obviously been a burden we wouldn’t have to undertake now, but that just proves even more why we should do it now, so we don’t have future commissioners saying, ‘Well, why didn’t we do it 10 years ago?’ At some point, you have to draw a line in the sand and say, we’re going to do this, it’s good for the community, it’s good for our county, and good for our residents.”
Shaffer, in an interview Wednesday, explained his yes vote, saying the project has been “in the making for years,” and that the county has spent “extensive dollars” to get where they are now.
“It would be irresponsible to pull the plug after all the dollars that have been expended to this date,” Shaffer said.
In other business…
- Commissioners approved a request from the Sheriff Chad Spence to purchase 15 AEDs and 15 individual first aid kits for the Sheriff’s Office and county buildings.
- Commissioners approved a quit claim deed finalizing a property exchange between the Parks Department and the Julia M. Hughes Revocable Trust in relation to a piece of land at the Rawson’s King Mill park.
- Commissioners approved the annual equalization report for the county.
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@wilcoxnewspapers.com.
