THC approves Gonzales County for Courthouse planning grant

The Texas Historical Commission’s Quarterly Architecture Committee meeting in Tyler on Friday, July 26, brought mixed news for Gonzales County.

While Gonzales County was not named one of the four recipients of full Round XIII Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program restoration grants, the committee did award a $1,095,429 planning grant to the county — the only planning grant awarded Friday. Planning grants can be used to develop construction documents for the full restoration of a historic courthouse.

Commissioners discussed the planning grant at their Monday, July 29 meeting. Accepting the grant to develop construction documents would require the county to come up with a 30 percent match of a little more than $469,000, said Tere O’Connell from O’Connell Architecture LLC, who helped the county develop its master plan and submit a grant application to the THC. The county has 90 days from the date of the award to accept or decline the planning grant.

O’Connell said there was a lot of competition for THC grants, with 31 counties seeking a piece of the $43 million available to be distributed by the commission.

“Of those 31 counties, six of them had shovel-ready plans ready to go to construction, but there wasn't enough money to go around to fund all those shovel-ready projects, so only four of them got funded,” O’Connell said. “Several of the shovel-ready projects had funded their plans and specs themselves. Counties who are working with not quite as wonderful of a building as you are had to put out the money for the plans and specifications entirely out of their own pocket to qualify for this grant.

“You scored really high, because you've got a beautiful building, you have strong support for historic preservation and you have a good design program that was articulated in the master plan,” O’Connell added. “The courthouse scored very high and was approved for a planning grant, so we are very excited.”

O’Connell said she knew there would be a lot of competition for full restoration grants, which is why she included an option for the THC to give the county a planning grant as well.

“This really works I think in your benefit, because we've got to get the annex renovated, we have to get it able for people to move into meanwhile,” O’Connell said. “One of the reasons I suggested such an aggressive schedule here for the annex is that once that work is done, then we can go in in earnest with the courthouse restoration plans and specifications, which will be substantial.”

O’Connell said THC has very high standards for construction specs for courthouse restoration that could take as much as a year and a half to prepare in order to get the county ready for the next biennial funding cycle, which takes place in two years.

“So two years from today, hopefully, I'll be telling you that you got your restoration funding,” she said.

There was some confusion among commissioners as to whether the $469,000 being spent as a local match for the planning grant would mean the county would have to come up with less money on the restoration grant. While the planning grant requires a 30 percent match, the restoration grant only requires a minimum match of 15 percent.

The full restoration grant originally being sought by the county called for $10 million in THCPP funding with a county match of $3.808 million, but that included money for construction plans, O’Connell said.

That could reduce the county’s overall restoration grant match, but rising construction costs could mean the construction estimate included in the grant is no longer accurate in two years’ time, which could require more match funding from the county, O’Connell said.

A grant orientation meeting with the THC has been set for Aug. 22. Prior to that, however, commissioners indicated a desire to have an attorney who specializes in construction look over everything to advise the best way for the county to proceed. Commissioners moved to table acceptance of the grant.

In addition to restoration grants granted to Comanche, Kimble, Van Zandt and Willacy counties, the commission gave emergency grants to Refugio and Duval counties and will award grants in September to Donley County for emergency for a previously restored courthouse and Castro for a planning grant.

O’Connell said she believes there is support for continuing the courthouse renovation funding by the THC.

“There was a lot of talk (at the THC meeting) about the rise in construction costs, the incredible burden and the costly effort it is to restore a historic courthouse and there was a lot of talk at the Commission about trying to justify a larger grant program in the next biennium,” O’Connell said. “And projects like Gonzales are going to be poster children for why there needs to be more money and because you have such a great building.”