Will County officials are expected to examine bid documents next month on the cost and specifications to demolish the former courthouse building.
Bids for demolition are due July 31, the next step in a multiyear process to tear down the vacant courthouse, 14 W. Jefferson St., which was used from 1969 to 2020. The Will County Board voted to demolish the building in 2019, and it is anticipated that it will come down this fall.
Will County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant told the board’s Executive Committee Thursday she has a vision for the property once the courthouse is demolished. She recently met with new Joliet Mayor Terry D’Arcy to discuss preliminary plans for a Will County and Joliet government campus, and the two officials released their ideas publicly last week.
“There is absolutely nothing set in stone,” Bertino-Tarrant said. “Our conversation is how we can work together.”
The joint government campus concept would provide much needed space for county and Joliet staff since both units of government lease office space throughout Joliet, they said.
Bertino-Tarrant said the county now needs to work on the next phase after demolition.
“We need a plan,” Bertino-Tarrant said. “That demolition has been voted on and is moving forward. And so we need a plan. That’s the conversation that we really need to be having. … There is a resolution and a direction that I am following. Once it is demolished, we have to have a plan.”
County Board member Julie Berkowicz, a Republican from Naperville, said as the board begins its annual budget process, county officials need to know an estimate of the cost for a new building.
Bertino-Tarrant said a future government campus “would not even be approached in next year’s budget.”
She said she isn’t sure what budget year a future government campus would be.
Berkowicz said her biggest concern was the responsibility to the Will County taxpayers.
“When you are merging anything, there is a concern that the Will County taxpayer may pick up an unfair burden, maybe, for a different unit of government,” Berkowicz said.
Bertino-Tarrant said the county has intergovernmental agreements and share services with other entities.
County Board Chair Judy Ogalla, a Monee Republican, said before the new sheriff’s department facility and the new courthouse were built, there was a needs assessment done.
The County Board will make decisions on how to spend its funds, she said.
“We can have conversations with the county executive, the city of Joliet, all of us, and then we’ll come up with what we are going to do, how we are going to move forward and from there we will vote,” Ogalla said. “So until you vote yes or no on whatever, we’re not building it.”
The board continues to talk about the future of the vacant courthouse building. There has been a growing effort recently to save the building from demolition.
County Board member Jackie Traynere, the Democrat leader, said the board was previously not given any opportunity to vote on anything other than demolition.
“We were told that was the only option,” Traynere, of Bolingbrook, said. “Since that time, the public became aware of the situation. … The public is letting us know they don’t want us to tear this down. They don’t want us to spend taxpayer dollars to tear down the building. They’d rather see us rehab the building and reuse the building.”
Ogalla said a consultant previously told the board rehabbing the building was not feasible.
Board member Frankie Pretzel, a Republican from New Lenox, said he doesn’t believe there is such a mandate from the public.
“To say that the public is telling us there’s other options, I think, is a little bit disingenuous,” Pretzel said. “I don’t think there’s any poll indicating that a majority of our constituents are wanting to save the courthouse now.”
Michelle Mullins is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.