HERMANN – Options for adding parking spaces at the Gasconade County courthouse are being considered by the County Commission as it moves to accommodate more people coming to the building.

The current 48 regular parking spaces and two reserved for handicapped drivers spots on the west and east sides of the courthouse are pressed to handle the everyday traffic of courthouse employees and residents doing business with the various county government departments. Add the increased crowds on days when sessions are held by the Circuit Court and the Associate Circuit Court and parking becomes a big problem.

Paul Winkelmann of Howe Company, the county’s consulting engineering firm,Thursday morning presented the Commission with a set of preliminary drawings showing about 30 more parking spaces. Winkelman was joined by fellow engineer Aaron Lukefahr in outlining the options offered to the Commission Thursday morning during its weekly session.

The Commission is looking to add spaces on both sides of the courthouse. Doing that would involve the construction of retaining walls.

Depending on the option chosen, the overall project could have a projected cost of about $1.1 million and could take about six months. Current parking spaces now used mainly by courthouse staff would be reduced during the construction of the new parking spaces. Those parking spaces would be needed as a storage area for materials and equipment.

Thus far, the county has spent $30,000 for Howe Company’s preliminary work; another $30,000 would be needed for the engineers to provide a more-detailed set of drawings that would be used when the project goes to contractors to submit a bid.

As for paying for the project, Presiding Commissioner Tim Schulte, R-Hermann, held out the prospect of taking two years to pay. That would be workable, noted County Clerk Lesa Lietzow, who added the county has about $1 million available in the budget for work such as this, but reminded the Commission that remodeling needed for the incoming Recorder of Deeds’ Office will have to be financed out of this year’s budget.

Meanwhile, Lietzow, the county’s chief budget officer, told the Commission that all departments of county government are in good shape at the mid-year point in the fiscal and calendar year. The only area that needs to be watched, the officials agreed, was in the budget of the Road Department, which has been spending a lot of time repairing storm damage to the county’s roads.

But, hopefully, the road agency will be approved for reimbursement through a Federal Emergency Management Agency fund for much of the cost of responding to the storm damage. A presidential disaster declaration for 34 counties has been formally requested by Gov. Mike Kehoe. (See related story in this edition of the Gasconade County Republican.)

Also, County Treasurer Mike Feagan during the Commission’s July 2 session reported that the county’s bottom line in its bank account remains strong at the mid-year point. The total balance as of June 30 was $5,698,992, compared with $4,916,801 on the bottom line at this point last year.

Of the various funds that make up the county budget, the most crucial is the General Fund, out of which flows the majority of dollars used to deliver county government services. At the mid-point, the General Fund had $3,740,065. At this point last year, the General Fund had $3,003,599 — almost three-quarters of a million dollars less than was in the bank at the end of June, the county treasurer reported.