Columbia County moves ahead on 11 Warren Street renovation; staff to pre-purchase building items to use ILS funding

Columbia County supervisors on the floor heard an update from county facilities staff and approved a measure to purchase materials and services tied to the interior renovation of the county office building at 11 Warren Street.

At a board meeting, staff member Ray Joukowsky told supervisors the project’s 75% construction documents were under review and that an outside cost-estimating firm, Tropiclent, concluded the construction work remains “within budget,” which the project documents list as $5,100,000. Joukowsky said the county has received just over $780,000 in funding through ILS to support renovations tied to the public defender and conflict defender offices and that ILS set timing requirements for obligating and using those funds. “The appropriation as far as the expenditures need to be obligated by March 31 of this year of 2025, and they need to be going down by June 29,” Joukowsky said.

To avoid losing that funding, Joukowsky said staff identified building-wide items that can be pre-purchased outside of…