Repair or rebuild: that is the question faced for old county courthouse

by Peter Jakey, Managing Editor Northshore Construction was hired by members of the Presque Isle County Board of Commissioners Wednesday night to repair the roof of the 1880s portion of the courthouse building in Rogers City.

The roof has been leaking in the probate judge?s office and a ceiling tile fell down a few weeks ago. The judge?s office is on the middle floor of the three-story structure. The roof has been leaking in that section of the building for years. Numerous repairs have been attempted, but have fallen short.

At the insistence of commissioner Mike Grohowski, who does contractor masonry work

, Northshore has been hired because they specialize in this area of work and will guarantee it for five years. The price tag on the repairs is $5,955. THE LEAKING roof, the recent room that was found to have mold in it and cleaned, as well as window replacements have brought this county board to a familiar fork in the road: to pursue construction of a new courthouse section, or to continue making repairs. Chairman Carl Altman has scheduled an informational meeting to discuss what to do about the old wing of the courthouse. MSU Extension director Cheryl Peters will facilitate Thursday?s (July 16) 7 p.m. meeting.

Board members are expected to toss out ideas of what should be done next. Commissioner Bob Schell commented at a recent meeting that stimulus money could be available for ?shovel ready? projects. A few years ago, architectural plans were prepared and brought to the board, but the project was stopped when county voters shot down a referendum to build a new section by selling bonds.