The first step in rehabilitating the large stained glass dome over the courthouse rotunda was taken Monday by the board of supervisors.
The board approved a fee proposal from Brooks Borg Skiles, a Des Moines architectural firm very familiar with the courthouse, to prepare necessary construction documents and services during the bidding phase for the job.
The proposal includes $2,200 for the construction documents. The request for bids will include a mandatory pre-bid walk-through. Brooks Borg Skiles in its proposal included another $2,342 to assist with those walk-throughs.
In presenting the proposal to the supervisors, county engineer Wade Weiss said he would be available for the walk-throughs and that could decrease Brooks Borg Skiles’ fees.
The supervisors hope to have the work on the dome completed before the courthouse centennial in October 2017. “We’ve got to keep it moving forward,” board chair John Muir said before calling for the vote on the motion to approve.
The board has already budgeted $6,500 for repair of the clear cover over the stained glass dome.
The project will involve removing the dome piece by piece, cleaning and refurbishing the pieces, and then reassembling the dome. A similar project on the smaller dome over the courtroom was completed in the fall of 2014 without damage to a single piece. The Stained Glass Store of Des Moines did the work.
Total cost for work on the large dome is estimated at $175,000.
