Renovated courthouse admired

A proud day for the Onaway community came with the dedication of the renovated courthouse Saturday. Years of planning and fund raising were capped with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the front door of the nearly century-old showpiece.

City manager Joe Hefele and Mayor Gary Wregglesworth welcomed a large crowd which nearly filled the front lawn of the grounds.

The mayor cited the account of the laying of the cornerstone in 1908 to compare that day with the current dedication.

“The account said that this is a great day for the city of Onaway, there is no greater building in western Presque Isle County. Those things are still true today,” Wregglesworth said.

Hefele told the audience about the history of the building. He said Merritt Chandler, the founding father of Onaway, led a group to construct the building around the turn of the last century. Their hopes were to relocate the county seat to the new building.

When that effort failed, they tried to form a new county, called Forest, by legislative action. That effort came up short at the state level and the city was left with a beautiful, but under utilized, courthouse building.

FUNDING CAME from a variety of sources for the restoration, Helefe said, including a variety of grants. “For some of the larger cost items, such as all new electrical and mechanical system, and a lot of the work on the inside, we needed to find more money. We went to the USDA Rural Development and asked for a few hundred thousand dollars. The initial grant from them was for $100,000.”

Hefele said some major funding came from a variety of sources, none more important than great support

given right in the community by citizens who wanted their courthouse restored.

Although much of the work on the exterior, first and second floors has been completed, the project is not finished.

“THAT LAST phase will be the restoration of the third floor. We need a second stairway to the third floor to make it usable and we need to paint the soffits and we would like to pave the entire lot. So there may be one last fund drive,” Hefele said.

Members of the Onaway High School Band performed, under the direction of Larry Schaeffer, as did a drama team, directed by Peg Herring.

After the ribbon was cut by members of the Onaway City Commission, the public toured the building. The first floor is already used by the Onaway branch of the Presque Isle District Library while part of the second floor is planned to house the Onaway City offices.

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