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Facilities director warns new courthouse will require dozens more workers; asks for maintenance, custodial and grounds hires
Summary
Facility Services Director Ed Nichols presented a facilities audit and staffing plan, saying the new courthouse will dramatically increase maintenance and custodial workload and asking for a phased set of hires—maintenance mechanics, custodians and a groundskeeper—plus vehicles and equipment to keep county properties operating.
Ed Nichols, speaking for Facility Services, told commissioners the county’s portfolio of properties and the planned new courthouse will require additional maintenance, custodial and grounds staff to maintain building operations and public safety.
Nichols said the department currently manages more than a dozen properties and roughly 468,602 square feet of cleaning responsibility (1,284,000 square feet total maintenance footprint across properties listed) and that staffing levels are below industry norms. He used a facilities metric of roughly 25,000–50,000 square feet per technician to illustrate the shortfall and said the new courthouse will further increase demands.
"In total, we have 42 properties," Nichols said, and noted that with the new courthouse the county will increase its square footage significantly. He proposed a prioritized staffing package: eight new maintenance mechanics (with three trucks) to restore adequate maintenance coverage across multiple facilities; six additional custodians (and one truck) to staff the larger courthouse and maintain daily cleaning service levels; and one additional groundskeeper with basic landscaping equipment to support downtown grounds and public areas. Nichols said the prioritized request focused first on safety and critical coverage: groundskeeper to address immediate downtown needs, custodians to ensure public‑facing spaces remain clean and safe, and maintenance mechanics to sustain building systems.
Nichols provided cost estimates: year‑one startup costs that include equipment and vehicles put the first‑year fiscal impact at just over $1,000,000 for full implementation of the prioritized package, with recurring annual costs after vehicle purchases of about $855,000 under his model. He said his figures assume standard uniforms, phones and equipment and that excluding capital purchases would reduce first‑year costs.
Commissioners asked Nichols about scheduling around the courthouse move and overlap between old and new facilities; Nichols said the physical move and the IT cutovers will take time but that major overlap should be limited and staff hiring will need lead time to recruit, vet and train new employees. He also flagged recruitment and retention issues for custodian positions and urged commissioners to consider pay and hiring strategies to keep experienced staff.
No personnel decisions were made during the workshop; commissioners asked Nichols to supply more granular cost breakdowns and timing assumptions to inform final budget choices.
