HERMANN — Gasconade County administrators are having to wait a bit longer to find out just how much a new set of doors for the courthouse will cost, which means organizations seeking a share of the final CARES Act money to be dispersed will have to wait, as well.

County Clerk Lesa Lietzow said last Thursday that local contractor Glenn Englert was working to obtain bids after it was learned that the planned automatic opening device for the front doors couldn't be installed by local workers. That decision by the manufacturer of the door sent the project back to the drawing board for adjustments to allow hands-free opening.

Lietzow noted a week earlier — after the deadline for bids on the new doors passed with no offers received — that not knowing what the cost of the doors will be means the County Commission won't know exactly how much CARES Act money will be available to divide among the dozen or so organizations seeking a share of the final $65,000 yet to be dispersed. Of that amount, county administrators have committed to spending $3,300 on a pair of hands-free water fountains for the courthouse and were planning on spending about $40,000 for new doors on the courthouse's three entrances. That would have left about $23,000 to be allocated to the local government, non-profit and civic organizations seeking CARES Act funds.

The amount to be dispersed could be more or less than the $23,000, depending on what the actual cost of the doors will be.

Lietzow told the Commission that Englert would be working with Mike LeRoy, a millworks operator in the region, to develop a bid quickly. “Hopefully, by next Thursday, I’ll have something” to present to the administrators, Lietzow said last week, referring to tomorrow’s County Commission session at Owensville City Hall.

After first having a Dec. 30 deadline to commit using all of the $1.725-million CARES Act money or having to return it to the federal treasury, counties were granted an extension by Gov. Mike Parson to take until June 30 to have the money allocated. That extension was granted because while some counties moved quickly to disperse their CARES Act allotment, most counties moved more cautiously in handing out the funds, making it likely that a significant amount of money still would be in the hopper when the Dec. 30 deadline arrived.

In other matters at last week’s session, the Commission agreed to award the Hafertafe Road low-water crossing project south of Rosebud to contractor Larry Kraus. The panel also agreed to continue having Peoples Savings Bank act as county government’s depository. The contract with PSB will be in place from June 1 through May 31, 2023, with an option to renew.

The administrators also cleared the way for Sheriff Scott Eiler to have repairs made to the air conditioning unit at the Gasconade County Sheriff’s Department offices in Swiss. A check by a local air conditioning technician showed the unit’s coil and condenser in need of replacing. The unit was “completely out of freon,” Eiler told the Commission, who told him to seek bids on the replacement of the unit. To make the necessary repairs to the existing unit would have cost an estimated $4,000.

Meanwhile, the Commission was taken aback by a bid from an area painter for work planned inside the first floor of the courthouse. Contractor Larry Hanks of New Haven offered to do the painting in the courthouse for $21,000 — as well as scraping and painting the woodwork of the adjacent red brick building for another $6,000.

Presiding Commissioner Larry Miskel, R-Hermann, called the bid for the courthouse work “crazy, outrageous.”

Southern District Associate Commissioner Jerry Lairmore, R-Owensville, agreed. “I can’t see $21,000 for that small area,” he said.

Northern District Associate Commissioner Jim Holland, R-Hermann, suggested having community service workers do the painting.

The Commission had agreed to finance the painting job with money in the Courthouse Restoration Fund — the fund created a couple years ago to pay for the new roof and to make improvements to the historic building. However, there is only about $10,000 remaining in that fund.