Clarion County commissioners earlier purchased the former Goodwill Building at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Liberty Street and plan to move probation and magistrate office out of their current rented spaces in town.

In order to hold down costs, commissioners elected to take charge of construction and rehabilitate the building.

With 40 years of construction experience, it was a natural that Commissioner Chairman Ted Tharan would want to take an active role in the project.  Tharan took exploreClarion.com’s Ron Wilshire on a tour of the construction and explained what the building would include.

“I did the initial design, and we took it to Joe Stahlman at Clarion Builders, and he put it on the CAD program,” said Tharan. “After that, he took it to Bureau VERITAS, and they inspected it all.  Our county engineer Kevin Reichert stamped the plans and certified that everything was what it was supposed to be.  Bureau Veritas went over everything and got a complete set of construction plans.  We’ve already had three inspections.”

The 8,400 square foot building is completely utilized, and there is not a wasted space anywhere in what should be an efficient structure.  Although Ted gives a guided tour of the construction in the video below, here is a detailed description of the building: spaces included a lobby, room for attorneys and clients, public restrooms, courtroom for Dwayne Quinn, utility corridor on one side of the building, utility rooms, lobby for the courts, probation waiting room, group/conference room for training, secure doors throughout the building, four juvenile probation rooms, 11 adult probation offices, drug testing rooms, mechanical room, holding room for anytime the sheriff has to bring someone in for court or if someone tests “hot” for drugs, evidence room, staff offices, and Quinn’s private office,

The building is now wired for everything from electricity to computer connections to new LED lighting to security cameras.

“The building cost $319,000.00, and I think we had $5,000.00 in drawing the plans, $2,000.00 in the building permit,” continued Tharan. “Probably at this time, we have less than $100,000.00 in materials as of today.  Fixtures still have to be purchased, carpet, paint, and things like that. If you buy your material right, you can do that.  We budgeted $300,000.00 for the construction.  Hopefully, we’ll be right on target; I’m hoping it will be less.”

Tharan readily acknowledges that the county employees who are working on the project made it possible.  Most of them had construction experience, and he called them “miracle workers.”

“The thing is, with my background in this, and doing this for 40 years, you know how to organize things.  As soon as you tell them something, they do it. It’s working out fantastic.”

“Once they get the drywall hung and taped and coated, they’re ready to paint.  Once they paint, they’ll be able to put the doors in, and then they’ll start on the flooring.”

“They should be somewhat done with the drywall by next week and ready to start coating.  We’re trying to get probation ready first and then the courts a month later.  We’re looking at probation ready by the end of the year and courts by February. You never know; you can always run into a problem somewhere.”

Tharan’s company built over 150 houses in the Clarion County area but also built offices such as all of Applewood Center, Computer Support, the EADS Group office, and more in Irwin and Somerset.

The Clarion County Courthouse also presents numerous construction challenges, starting with the single boiler in the basement for the entire building.

Commissioners are now looking at two different replacement avenues — or a series of boilers, and when it’s not terribly cool outside, they will come on, and as you need more heat, going to individual units in each room to heat and cool.

“We’re looking at all different aspects of what we can do. The cost is unknown as of right now,” said Tharan.  “I would guess if you look at each individual room, you’re looking at half a million dollars. I think it’s impossible to put central air conditioning in the entire building. To do that, you would have to go to individual units like Mitsubishi has for new construction and used in Europe. It’s like a heat pump, and it’s very efficient. We’re also exploring the possibility of using the boiler system to also cool the water, and you could run cold water in the summer and hot water in the winter for heat.”

The natural question at this point is how would they pay for it.

“It depends on the cost.  If it’s too costly, we won’t be able to afford to do it until we save enough money.  Once we get moved into the Goodwill building, hopefully, we’ll start saving that rent money.  Not only do you save the rent of the physical building, you’re going to be saving on internet connections, electric bills, garbage bills, water bills, and sewage bills. The building will be so efficient in electricity, the electric bills should be cut way down.”

No item is too small to review for cost savings, including light bulbs.  

According to Tharan, if changes are made from an incandescent bulb to a LED bulb you’re eligible for $5.00 per bulb.  It cuts down on maintenance, and you don’t have to change it for years, and some of the high ceilings require extra work in changing the bulbs.

“We’re looking at a plan right now to replace all incandescent bulbs with LED bulbs in all of our buildings and take advantage of that, even our outside parking lights.  We can save a lot of money if we switch to LED bulbs. Maybe you spend a little more money when you put the bulbs in, but when you drop your electric bill over a period of years, it’s a phenomenal savings. We’re looking at everything; there are just not enough hours in the day to get it all done.”

The second courtroom in the Clarion County Courthouse has already been renovated, and efforts are going to be made to improve the main courtroom. One of the problems is with noise in the main courtroom due to the older windows on the building, according to Tharan. Wind rattles them as it blows through the courtroom and juries can be sometimes wearing coats in the winter.

Regarding the courthouse itself, Tharan feels the exterior is in good shape, and interior repairs will take time.

“We can do a five-year or ten-year plan to try to update everything. The outside is in fairly good shape. They cleaned all of the brick and repointed the mortar, and the roof is good.

Tharan shows his construction experience and wonderment of the courthouse building.

“To stand here and look at the building, how fascinating would it have been to watch them build this in the 1800’s.  You have to remember there was no electric, there was no equipment, there was nothing — it was all by hand. They built wooden scaffolding around this, and they carried every brick up.  Imagine what it would have been like. Look at the size of the stones in the arch up by the clock.  How would they have done that? It would have been brute strength.  No wonder nobody ever lived past 50.”