The Blaine County Journal News-Opinion - We've Got The County Covered

The winter snowfall that caused so much damage last spring is still disrupting activities as another winter approaches. The storm blanketed the region with record amounts of snow and caused significant property damages around Blaine County.

One of those buildings damaged was the Annex behind the Blaine County Courthouse that suffered considerable damage to it's roof and forced the immediate relocation of the Blaine 1 Ambulance to a new location on the west end of Chinook.

Repair of the structure is finally set to take place and the first step was to relocate the remaining tenants. The Blaine County Health Department and the MSU Extension Office recently moved to temporary locations until repairs are completed.

The Blaine County MSU Extension Office is now located in the old District Court office in the basement level of the Courthouse. Blaine County Health has relocated for the time being to the Harshman Law Office building just across Illinois Street.

Several options were looked at when determining how to move forward and replacing the roof was the most feasible option. The cost of replacing the building with a new structure would have exceeded a million dollars for a structure with the same amount of space. As it is the County insurance will cover the cost of replacing the roof.

The plan the Commissioners are proceeding with estimates construction cost at $370,000 which does not include "soft" costs.

The project includes the removal and replacement of the roof structure over the high bay of the existing Courthouse Annex, approximately 87' x 57' and will involve demolition and removal, possible foundation work, roof framing and a support system. The east and south sides will tie into in existing walls. The west and north sides will be tied into the existing roof system.

The Blaine County Commissioners have been working with Kulbeck Architect out of Billings in designing plans to replace the roof.

The damage done by the storm directly affected the Extension

Office, "What we are afraid of, with having them in there, is that if we had another snow load on the roof and the east wall came down chances are it would compromise the wall on the extension," said Commissioner Fairbank. "The Health Department, they are pretty much isolated away from

it. It wouldn't have bothered them. But, after we declare emergency to move one out, we have to move them both out. And we don't want anything happening to them."

The Commissioners declared an emergency with regard to the structure with another winter upon us and therefore are able to bypass the bidding process and expedite the process by as much as two months.

Plans submitted by the architect need to be finalized with a few minor adjustments. "Clausen, out of Havre, is probably going to be the one to do the work. We had a meeting last Friday and asked him if those plans were good enough to go out and order stuff and he said they were close but they weren't quite there,"

Weather permitting the plan is to begin work on the inside, complete concrete footing and other preparatory work, wait for the concrete to completely cure and then take the roof off and replace it.

"They are going to come in here and they will cut the cement out and put a form down. Something for the support beam to sit on. There will be three of them put in here. And they hope to do that before the take the roof off," added Fairbank.

The Blaine County Extension office is temporarily located in the old District Court location on the basement level of the Blaine County Courthouse

As far as a time-line for completion of the project, it's uncertain with weather playing a big part of it, "It's really hard to say when it would be completed. I'm hoping to see something the beginning of next week. Something starting to happen there," Fairbank said. "When they are able to bring a crew in, it won't take them long. They got to get them footings cut out, and this old cement cut out of the floor and new footings put in it for that beam that goes north and south. Once that's done, and the cement cures they can take the roof off."

For the time being Blaine County

Extension services as well as Blaine County Health will be available to the public without interruption from their temporary locations.

Those groups or organizations that often used the Triple E Meeting room have found or will need to find new locations to hold their meetings.