Cortland County provides updates on construction & renovation projects

Cortland County Courthouse. (Photo Source: Kevin L. Smith of The Cortland Voice).

Chuck Miller, Cortland County’s Director of Buildings and Grounds, discussed the completion status of six county construction and renovation projects at Tuesday’s Buildings and Grounds committee meeting.

The projects discussed by Miller are:

The city court relocation, Miller said, is “75 percent complete.” The Cortland Common Council and the county agreed to move city court to the County Courthouse at 46 Greenbush St. in the summer. The project is set to be covered by the New York State Unified Court System. Their reimbursements will cover cleaning services for the interior of the County Courthouse as well as minor and emergency repairs and preventive building and property maintenance services for that facility.

Miller said construction will last from May to June, pending contractor state date availability. The county plans to hire an architect this month, and have construction documents outlined by March. The bidding process would occur in March, and the county would designate a contractor in April.

The county office building elevator, Miller said, has a tentative start date sometime in February

The elevator project would cost approximately $97,500 and was discussed last summer. Upgrades include new door panels and a new electrical and control system. The upgrades would be commissioned to Kone, a Finnish engineering service.

“We are currently waiting for parts,” Miller said. “A couple pieces did arrive but we are still waiting for one or two.”

Once the parts are here, he noted, installation is expected to take around three weeks. 

Installation on a new, $250,000 Courthouse elevator, approved in September last year, could start in April, Miller said.

“(Kone) is saying the same thing,” he said. “They cannot get the pieces to assemble.”

The county hopes to have the Courthouse steps project finalized by the end of August. The county awarded a bid for the $1.5 million project to renovate the steps last December.

“We are looking at an April start,” Miller said.

The planned county mental health building on 111 Port Watson St. recently received $3 million in funds from Democratic U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York. Miller said the project will be constructed in four phases. The programming phase for the building has not been yet completed.

A document from the legislature suggests construction could start in June and be done any time between April-to-June 2024.

After the update on the projects, legislator Paul Heider (R-LD-16) said he wants to meet with Miller and county administrator Rob Corpora to discuss further projects at the County Courthouse. 

“I would like to get everything done that we can,” he said. “We have a lot of one-time money. We have the possibility of completing the courthouse projects.”

Heider noted he will report on a plan for the courthouse at next month’s committee meeting.