$400K renovation of city court approved by board
A more than $400,000 renovation of the Ridgeland Municipal Court Services building was approved by aldermen this week.
The two-month renovation will be done by a Brandon-based construction company.
City officials unanimously approved the contract with BIG Construction out of Brandon on the consent agenda at their regularly scheduled meeting on April 5.
Police chief John Neal said that they do not have a start date but hope to make an announcement following a pre-construction meeting scheduled for next week.
He said further details are to come as the work could lead to cancelled court dates during construction. He said they will also have a way for the public to enter the building. He said they hoped to make a public announcement when they had more specifics.
The contract expects the work to be substantially complete within 120 calendar days and estimates the project will cost up to $425,000. The contract mentions McLain Plumbing Mechanical and Magnolia Electric Company as subcontractors.
A representative for the construction company said that $425,000 is a higher estimate for the project noting that roughly $75,000 of the work is set to cover possible change orders the construction crews could encounter.
In October, the city hired Dean and Dean Architects for the project.
Neal said he hopes the renovations will make the room more functional and will function as a classroom or large meeting room for law enforcement when court is not in session.
The renovations, he said, will mostly concern the actual courtroom but the ceilings and floors of other parts of the building would be redone. The plan is to replace church pew-style seating with individual seats as well as renovating the areas where the prosecution and defense tables are as well as the judge's bench.
The project is said to include adding new lighting and doing significant work on the air conditioning for the room.
Neal said that to his knowledge the courthouse has not had any significant work done since 1999 or 2000.