MOUNT VERNON – An $800,000 full renovation and modernization of the Knox County Courthouse cupola clock tower should begin on Oct. 1, County Administrator Jason Booth told the Mount Vernon News.
He said the inner workings of the clock tower are so old that parts are no longer available so a new, modern mechanism will be installed.
“There were some broken windowpanes up in the cupola that were allowing water penetration. So all of that is going to be redone. There's going to be a new copper roof put on the top of the cupola,” he said.
The entire courthouse roof will be painted and some tuckpointing will be done. Tuckpointing involves removing a portion of the deteriorated mortar, filling the joints with new mortar and then applying a thin line of putty in a contrasting color down the center of the joint, according to bobvila.com.
The project is expected to continue until spring.
“The community will really notice that because they’re going to have to scaffold the entire cupola of the courthouse and it'll be that way for a few months. And that’ll certainly be noticeable because that’s a pretty iconic building that can be seen from about anywhere in town up on the knoll, so people will certainly notice scaffolding going up starting Oct. 1,” Booth said.
County adding treatment plant for Pleasant View Acres
Out of the approximately $12 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money that Knox County received it has approximately $3 million to $4 million left, Booth said. Even the remaining funds have been allocated.
One of the remaining projects will use $2.2 million of the ARPA funds to construct a small package plant for Pleasant View Acres, he said.
Package plants are pre-manufactured treatment facilities used to treat wastewater in small communities or on individual properties, according to a U.S. EPA fact sheet.
“It’s a small set of houses, 40 to 50 houses. And they’re on an old, what’s called lagoon system for their sewer system out there,” he said.
The real benefit to using the ARPA funds means that it will not cause an expense or debt burden for the homeowners living in that area, Booth said. Typically for sewer projects the users who are customers of the system must pay some debt service to fund construction of the sewer plant. However, the use of ARPA funding will cover the costs. And the plant will be kept in EPA compliance for years to come, he said.
Electric and gas aggregation are back on the ballot
Knox County is putting electric and natural gas aggregation as a ballot issue in November. The utility aggregation enables county residents as a group to get a better price on electric and natural gas than an individual can, Booth said.
A similar measure failed two years ago, but Knox County Commissioners had citizens reach out and ask for it now as energy prices have had significant increases, he said.
Mount Vernon and the Village of Fredericktown already have aggregation, he said. The commissioners can only put it on the ballot for unincorporated areas of the county, which exclude cities and villages.
Booth said the county has “no skin in the game on whether it passes or fails. But we just think it’s a good deal for the citizens of Knox County to save money on energy.”
Even if it passes, residents can opt out of aggregation, as the passage does not force them to participate, he said.
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