Clinton County Government is checking off several items on a “to do” list that has been around for nearly 30 years.
Clinton County Commissioner President Jordan Brewer visited a full meeting room at Arborwood for the Frankfort Rotary Club. Brewer delivered an update with an historical background on the Annex, Courthouse renovation and status of economic development in Clinton County.
The Clinton County Courthouse was built in 1882 and was a two year project costing $200,000. The design of the Clinton County Courthouse is basically the same as the Anderson Indiana courthouse demolished in 1972. One difference between the two buildings is the Courthouse in Frankfort was made of more expensive limestone, while the courthouse in Anderson was made of brick. A unique requirement of county government is to perpetually store documents. Currently even hallways at the courthouse are used for increasing storage needs. Something had to be done.
Possibility of a new Clinton County Annex building and Courthouse renovation project was discussed in depth in the mid 90’s, according to Clinton County Commissioner President Jordan Brewer. Expansion never happened in 1996 primarily because a unified agreeable plan could never come together. Disagreement led to inaction. Two or three years ago, as county government reviewed pressing needs for county space, storage, dysfunctional business locations to conduct county business, growth capacity, lack of meeting and conference room spaces and more–it became obvious the exact same list of burning issues alive and well nearly 30 years ago were still staring the county in the face almost three decades later.
Then the Regions Bank Building on Washington Street on the square came open. The opportunity to solve these same old problems seemed to be in play again.
County Attorney Tom Little was not having much luck working with the building owner from Canada, who wanted at least a million dollars for the building. The average of the first appraisal set with two different appraisers was in the $400,000 range. This did not go over very well with the out-of-town building owner. No progress could be made because of the vast separation between appraised value and asking price. Another set of two appraisals were eventually done. This time the appraisal average was $513,000. This closed the gap some, but the two parties were just not able to make progress. In a last-ditch effort to bring the two sides together, Little threw the ball to Brewer. With only 8 months in the commissioner’s position, Brewer was reluctant to take this on. After a spirited phone exchange with the building owner, perhaps filled with colorful candor on both sides, the two sides were able to break through remaining roadblocks and come up with the win-win result. Due to constraints on how the County is able to legally conduct business, the building had to sell for $513,000 or another buyer had to be found. The building sold for $513,000, far less than the original asking price of about $1,000,000. Brewer helped get the transaction across the finish line.
The assumption originally was the existing old Regions Building would be renovated and eventually become the Clinton County Annex. Eventually, it became increasing obvious the cost difference between proper renovation and new construction was narrowed to the point that new construction, while not the original plan, just made financial sense. The Annex will cost Clinton County $17,000,000 and be ready for occupation “Spring 2025” and occupation of the renovated Courthouse will be “Spring 2026.” There will be a one year period in 2025-2026 when both Superior and Circuit courts will operate in the completed Annex Building while Courtroom renovations are done.
When all is said and done, here is the breakout of where things will be:
Annex Building:
- Commissioners Office
- Council Office
- Auditor
- Assessor
- Surveyor
- Treasurer
- Area Plan
- Veterans Affairs
- Meeting rooms and board rooms
Renovated Courthouse:
- Prosecutors Office
- Clerk
- Courts (eventually three courtrooms. Additional courtroom will be in existing commissioners meeting room.
Brewer opened up the meeting to questions. One question was “How do you view our current economic development team with Shan Sheridan and the PIP (Partners in Progress) Board, etc.?
Brewer: “I think we are in a difficult position for economic development but also a position that has opportunity. What I mean by that … we are really good at getting people to the table. People are interested. But we don’t have a closer. That is not necessarily an individual person, but collectively we struggle with closing…and that is just the reality of it. There are a couple reasons why that is. For those who don’t know how this works…you have to incentivize industries and companies to come here. We have taken the stance we’re not going to give the farm away to have them come. Then there is essentially no benefit. The Council has put in a couple different methods of what they will offer in the package based on what type of investment that is. But the other piece of that is, we are always working with the State. We will never get anything if they (I.E.D.C.) Indiana Economic Development Corporation don’t participate with us. We just can’t offer an incentive package when it is a competitive market that will allow someone to come here, so, we have a good team in place but doesn’t mean we can’t improve to figure out a way to get these closed. We are really good at getting in the final three. We are in the final three a lot of times. Some of that is based on location…6-8 hours with 80% of US population. So we are on the radar. Sometimes the other community will give a 100% tax abatement for over 10 years. Why would we do that? We need the money to come into the pie so everybody else’s slice becomes less.” Brewer also stated that our low unemployment rate is also a factor. Brewer thinks that in a climate of increasing robotics and AI, larger investments will be landed with fewer employees needed which will go in our favor with our current extremely low unemployment rate.
Brewer predicts Clinton County growth will continue to be around Ag-based, food businesses, which can be recession proof and Ag Tech, Automotive and overflow from the LEAP project in Boone County.
Brewer was asked “What keeps you up at night and what should keep us up at night from a county perspective?” Brewer’s response centered, in essence, on when all the moving parts are in parallel or in agreement, we get a lot done and things go well. When things are not that way, it is difficult and less gets done.