Commissioners hear update on Courthouse elevator, annex

On Monday, July 8, Gonzales County Judge Pat Davis updated members of the Gonzales County Commissioners Court on the status of the Courthouse elevator — which has been down for two months — as well as the Courthouse Annex, which has been vacant since last December due to structural concerns.

Davis said the county has a contract with TK Elevator Corporation, formerly known as Thyssenkrupp Elevator Manufacturing Inc., to perform maintenance and repairs on the Courthouse elevator, but they have not been able to get anyone to respond.

“We have talked to another company that is out of San Antonio, but we’re stuck in this contract for 90 days for us to get out of it,” Davis said. “We are drafting a letter and have sent it to them due to the fact that they haven't been keeping up with the logs and everything else on the elevator. Those are grounds for breach of contract.”

Davis said the county attorney’s office has not heard back from TK Elevator and “we will take it by their silence that they don't want to do this contract.” The county has already paid the previous two months without service, so Davis said the county plans to pay one last month and use that as grounds to terminate the contract with 90 days payment made.

Davis said the other company, which he did not name, reportedly will service the elevator at a much lower rate than the current contract and should be more responsive.

On the Courthouse annex, Davis said WJE Engineering, a structural engineering company, has asked for permission to dig up sidewalk around one corner of the building so they can better assess the beam underneath the structure.

“They can see pretty much the rest of the beam around, but they want to take out 13 feet of sidewalk on each of the corners and dig down five feet to check that beam,” Davis said. “I think once they get that assessment on that, then they will be able to give us the remedy to go from there.”

Commissioners had asked O’Connell Architecture and WJE Engineering for recommendations to address structural failures at the annex building on Sarah DeWitt Drive while the two companies were also helping the county apply for funding from the Texas Historical Commission to renovate the Courthouse.

The 43-year-old annex building housed the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Gonzales Central Appraisal District, Adult and Juvenile Probation Departments, Texas Department of Public Safety and Texas Driver’s License office until October, when commissioners voted to vacate the building to address fears about its safety due to deterioration. Concerns about the building arose from large cracks in walls at the annex and missing pieces of concrete.

Commissioners also voted Monday to reject a resale bid for Lot 8, Block 1 in the Ewings Second Addition in Gonzales because the bid “does not conform with the uniform policy that’s in place by the county or the other taxing units, which is to not accept a bid that is less than 50 percent of the original opening bid for any property held in trust,” according to County Tax Assessor-Collector Crystal Cedillo.

The original opening bid on the property was $23,607.25, so 50 percent would have been $11,803.63.

“I will say this is the first bid that I've ever received that did not conform to policy and when I explained that to them, they did not come back with a bid that actually adheres to policy,” Cedillo said.