Supervisors weigh options for courthouse tuckpointing project

The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors is continuing to weigh options on tuckpointing the courthouse.
Initial plans were to do portions of the courthouse, however, at the end of June, the supervisors received a quote from Ben South with Andrew Tuckpointing LLC which advised all but the west side of the courthouse was in need of a full tuckpointing.
According to South’s quote, the north elevation repair was estimated at $73,319. The cost was $43,219 for the east elevation repair, $61,310 for the south elevation repair, and $28,925 for the west elevation. Cost of the clock tower repair was $175,496. The total estimated cost was a little over $382,000. South said the project could be done in phases.
The supervisors revisited the tuckpointing topic at its regular meeting July 18. The supervisors discussed the project with County Auditor Jill Ozuna and maintenance supervisor Dan Wright.
Ozuna said since that initial discussion in June, the county had sought other quotes for the project but was unsuccessful.
“We had a couple of contractors here to quote it. One sent a letter saying they did not have the manpower and wouldn’t quote it, and the other contractor said the project was too large of a scale for them to do. So far, the only quote we have is from Andrew Tuckpointing,” Ozuna said.
Ozuna also said she had initiated discussions with the county’s bonding attorney. According to Supervisors Chair Mike Olson, bonding may be necessary.
“The issue is we were hoping the roughly $200,000 in funding we’d earmarked in American Rescue Plan Act funding would cover the tuckpointing, and it will only cover half of it,” Olson said. “We also discussed doing in sections. However, the more I think about it, and this is just my opinion, if we don’t do this all at once, it’ll never get done. We may do one side, and in the next year or two we won’t have the money to do it and we won’t. I just didn’t know where we were going to get that kind of money.”
Olson said one option was to hold a public hearing and bond for the project along with the county law enforcement center. Olson said there were other benefits to doing the project at once.
“According to Dan Wright, if we do the project all at once, we’ll tear the yard up all at once and not have to re-seed each section after it’s completed if the project is in phases,” commented Olson.
Supervisor Randy Cooper asked if the county could seek qualification for a historic places grant. Olson and Wright advised against it.
“If we sought a grant, we’d have to put the same mortar back in, and according to the quote we got from Andrew Tuckpointing, that mortar just isn’t good enough,” Wright said.
Olson added there were other protocols that would have to be followed to be eligible for a historic places grant, and the project would cost more than what had already been quoted.
Supervisor Mark Peterson said contractor Randy Roster had reviewed the courthouse and while declining to bid, he suggested all four sides did not need a complete tuckpointing.
“I don’t know if he’d be willing to talk to the whole board,  but I know he felt the project did not need to be as extensive as was quoted. I will ask if he is willing to discuss the project with the whole board,” Peterson said. “The only reason he’s not willing to bid the project is because he didn’t feel he would have enough help.”
Wright said his concern was that the mortar that may be in good condition this year may not be the same a few years from now.
“If we don’t grind it out now and replace it, what happens when it starts falling out? Then you’re back to square one again and the prices will only go up. The clock tower has needed a full re-tuckpointing since we put the new roof on. The bid now is about $65,000 more than we would have paid if we’d done the project then, by comparison,” advised Wright. “Still, I would have liked to have had another bid just to have something to compare to. I’ve called everyone I know from around here.”
If the courthouse was re-tuckpointed. Andrew Tuckpointing guaranteed the work for 30 years. Wright outlined the problem with the existing mortar.
“He said even the spots where the mortar is not falling out it’s cracked on both sides, which is allowing the water to get in behind the bricks and potentially freeze. They also didn’t strike the mortar and give it a concave so the water can roll in behind it. I’m not sure who did the work the last time, there’s no record of who did it and when it was done, although South said it had been done at one point,” Wright explained.
Maggie McQuown spoke during the meeting and said that Andrew Tuckpointing had been hired for work at the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad and World War II museum, and she found Andrew Tuckpointing to be fair and reputable.
The supervisors tabled a decision on the project until they could get more information from Roster.