Converting the former Townsend Hotel into a new courthouse will cost about $26 million, representatives of an architecture firm and the general contractor said Tuesday.

"We've got the numbers pretty tight," Greg Pope of Caspar-Pope Construction told the Natrona County commissioners at a work session.

Natrona County needs the courthouse to comply with the state law mandating counties provide one 12-juror courtroom for each state district judge and staff. The expansion also would provide offices for the Clerk of District Court, records storage, security, prisoner holding cells, and better technology. The current courthouse has one full courtroom and a small courtroom, and limited security for the public, judges and defendants.

Voters twice turned down limited tax increases to pay for the courthouse, leaving the county to find other ways to meet the state's requirements.

For their part, the commissioners said the county can pay for the Townsend project.

But they waited to count the money after Pope and Tim Schenk of GSG Architecture outlined the hard "guaranteed maximum prices" of the Townsend project. A guaranteed maximum price means if the project exceeds that price, the construction manager assumes the risk of cost overruns.

The actual construction of the building and site improvements is a firm $19,850,161, Pope said.

That amount includes creating shells for interiors of third and fourth floors for the relocation of the Natrona County Circuit Court judges from the Hall of Justice, and a basic shell for a fourth "flex courtroom," he said.

Finishing the third and fourth floors would add another firm $1,602,933 to the cost, Pope said.

If the commissioners want to finish the fourth courtroom - the county's civil and criminal caseload soon will require a fourth state district judge - that would add another hard $307,601, he said.

These three hard numbers add up to $21,760,695. This amount does not include the $1.26 million the commission spent to buy the former hotel in early January.

However, such a project also includes professional services for architects and engineers; miscellaneous costs such as furniture, telephone and data cabling, and filing systems; and contingency fees.

These additional costs brought the total to $24,220,680 including $2 million for contingency fees that could be returned to the county if they aren't spent, Pope said.

The Townsend project would take about 18 months to complete.

Commissioners will hold a formal meeting at 3:30 p.m. Thursday to vote whether to accept the GSG/Caspar-Pope proposal.

Paying for it

Commissioners raised questions about hiring locally, the circuit courtrooms and the fourth state district courtroom, as well as furniture and moving county offices.

However, Commission Chairman Jon Campbell cut to the chase.

"The bigger question is sitting down and figuring out if we can come up with $26,220,680," Campbell said. "We need to be prepared to pay for it."

So after the presentation by Pope and Schenk, the commissioners began adding the funds the county has and determining other financial resources.

The county already has $11.2 million from a 2006 grant from the State Loan and Investment Board, plus about $4 million in savings set aside for the courthouse project, Campbell said.

They also looked at money they could divert from other projects: $400,000 set aside to demolish the century-old County Annex at 120 W. First St.; a package of $400,000 plus $1.7 million from Optional One Percent Sales Tax revenues that were to be applied to creating parking facilities if the courthouse expansion was built immediately south of the existing courthouse; withdrawing $2 million from the county's $3.7 million cash reserves.

While the Optional One Cent revenues were intended for courthouse parking, the county will need to notify the One Cent Committee of its decision to divert those funds to the Townsend construction costs, Campbell said.

The total $19.7 million, Campbell said, puts the county within striking range of the cost estimates given by Pope and Schenk.

However, Campbell expressed strong reservations about drawing down the cash reserves because he believes the county should have three-months of cash on hand for operations.

Campbell also disliked the idea of bonding, because the costs for setting up a revenue bond or certificate of participation would cost too much for the money needed, he said

If commissioners continue the practice of the past few years of saving $1 million a year, they probably will be able to meet their obligations for the courthouse, Campbell said.

Commissioner Rob Hendry added that local sales taxes, property taxes and minerals revenues probably will continue.

The reallocation of funds may delay some programs, but it won't cause any damage to other county services, Campbell and others said.

"We are not jeopardizing any projects," Campbell said.

Reach Tom Morton at (307) 266-0592, or at Tom.Morton@trib.com.