Wichita County embarks on $3.3 million annex building overhaul
Wichita County Commissioners on Monday cleared the way to begin a $3.3-million overhaul of the courthouse annex building at 600 Scott Ave.
Commissioners signed off on a guaranteed maximum price for construction manager at risk for a project that will renovate the building one block east of the main courthouse. The building houses several offices but is known to most residents as the tax office where property and vehicle taxes are paid.
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Commissioner Mark Beauchamp said the entire project will be paid from the county’s share of the American Rescue Plant Act (ARPA) money provided by the federal government as COVID-19 relief.
Beauchamp, who is in charged of county buildings, said work will start on the exterior and then move to the interior, which will necessitate closing the tax office to the public for a while after the first of the year.
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He said the tax office will be completely reconstructed to create separate property and motor vehicle offices, each with its own lobby. Another component will be a new heating and conditioning system.
New flooring will be added to the second and third floors.
“The flooring is just coming to pieces up there. You can literally walk on the tile and it cracks under your feet,” Beauchamp said.
He said the exterior will get a total facelift. Both large windows at the front, one of which has a bullet hole, will be replaced along with canopy improvements and addition of a 24-hour drop box and ATM machine.
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“It will look like a public building,” he said.
In addition to the tax office, the annex contains offices for indigent health, adult probation, the public defender, veterans services, the ag extension service, the Wichita Appraisal District and the county auditor.
Beauchamp said offices on the second and third floors will stay accessible throughout the construction project, which will last 18 to 24 months. The satellite locations of the tax office will be open to the public while the main office is closed early next year.
He said despite its problems, the building is solid.
“We just have the opportunity to invest some dollars into it to put it back to where it needs to be,” he said.
Before the county purchased the building in 1977, it had been a furniture store, a car dealership, a disco and had been scheduled to become a retail outlet known as BECO, an ill-fated enterprise notorious for its “What’s a BECO?” teaser campaign in local media.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: County embarks on $3.3 million annex building overhaul
