Planning for demolition of old buildings continues along with designs for justice center

By Melinda J. Overstreet
for Glasgow News 1
The documents needed to advertise for bids for the demolition of two buildings on the property where a new court facility is planned for Barren County are in the process of being composed, with a draft expected to be ready for review by attorneys early next week.
The plans and other information compiled by the architects on the project were forwarded to the construction manager earlier Wednesday, one of the lead architects reported Wednesday afternoon to the project development board.
Tommy Gumm, representing his company, Alliance Corp., which is handling construction management, said he expects to finalize the documents and get them forwarded to the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts for legal review Monday. The bid timeline will then depend on how long that review takes, he said.
Meanwhile, work is proceeding on the detailed architectural design of what is anticipated to be a three-story structure, a conceptual design for which was completed and approved during the summer.
Over the past few weeks, the architects have met with some of the specific groups of people who would be working in the new justice center to discuss any needs or concerns they have about the design regarding the courtrooms, security, the clerk’s area, etc., and more such meetings are to take place in the coming few weeks with the people involved as court-designated workers, pretrial services specialists and specialty courts, like drug court, the architects reported.
Brian Estep, one of the architects, said that after the initial meetings, the only changes they needed to make from what had been presented conceptually were minor. Later, Circuit Judge John T. Alexander said he thought those end-user meetings had been very productive, covering a lot of ground; he agreed that no major changes came from those discussions.
Architect Jody Driggs said he believed the design team would have additional graphics to show them at the Dec. 27 meeting.
He added later that in order to proceed in a timely manner with the designs, they need some geotechnical information and to wait until the existing buildings – a former Dollar General Store and the former Glasgow Glass Co. behind it – are gone would put that work significantly behind, so in the interim of getting the buildings demolished, he anticipated they would have some ground borings completed from different portions of the property. Then, depending on what they find, they will determine what is necessary at the actual building sites.
The next regular meeting, which is primarily via the streaming service Zoom, begins at noon Dec. 13. Typically, these midmonth meetings may also be attended in person in Alexander’s courtroom, but he said he may have a proceeding in court that day that would prohibit that, so it may be necessary to move the in-person location.
The Dec. 27 meeting begins at 2:30 in Fiscal Court Chambers on the third floor of the Barren County Government Center, 117 N. Public Square.