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County Begins $1.6 Million Renovation Of Historic Courthouse

    Lake County has begun a substantial renovation of its historic courthouse building.  Contractors have begun work on the building with the goal of restoring a variety of areas that have shown wear or that have failed.
    For several months, the building’s 16 columns have been wrapped to shore them up after they were found to be in varying degrees of decay.  In a project that is expected to take up to a year, the columns, as well as any other area of the building found to need, work, will be replaced.
    The county has budgeted just over $1.6 million for the work, which is expected to include removing and replacing existing terra cotta, replace 100% of column capitals and 20% of column shafts, repoint the building's masonry, replace deteriorating steel lintels on windows, and clean and seal the building's masonry.
    “We’re going to have to take (the columns) down, and then put them back up,” said John Ambach, President of Ambach Masonry Construction, the firm that is heading the project.  Ambach on Monday described a process of evaluating each section of the building, and sending faulty pieces off to a firm in New York, where new pieces will be formed and returned for future install.
    On Monday,  Boston Valley Terra Cotta was using scanning equipment to evaluate sections of the building, part of an evaluation process that is expected to bring clarity on what needs to be replaced.
    “Anything that is broke, we have to replace,” Ambach said.  That process is expected to take up to five months.
    It is the second time the firm has worked on the building, which turned 100 years old earlier this year.  In 1994, Ambach oversaw a renovation of the building and the installation of elevators.  Today, the building houses the Lake County Historical Museum as well as offices associated with the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
    Monday’s initial evaluation included the finding of a nest that housed two baby Peregrine falcons.  The nest was built in a hole in a column that is set to be removed.  The birds were removed by Christie Mysinger, a Captain with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, and were transported to the Lady Lake Animal Hospital.  From there, they were to be transported to an avian rescue facility in Wildwood.