Pieces of wood, Sheetrock and a lot of dust litter what once served as the Limestone County Courthouse on South Jefferson Street. Former Limestone County Commission Chairman David Seibert is overseeing a project to turn the building into office space for three agencies in an effort to reduce the county's annual rent.

For more than two years, the former Better Living building on South Jefferson Street in Athens served as the Limestone County Courthouse.

Former Limestone County Commission Chairman David Seibert said Tuesday some folks are still unaware operations have returned to the actual courthouse.

“People still come in here, wanting to go to court,” said Seibert, who now assists the commission with economic development. “They walk in and say they need to see a judge but I tell them, ‘No, look at the sign on the door.’”

Seibert, his grandson and various county employees have been working to reconfigure the 12,000-square-foot building, purchased by the Limestone County Commission in 2013 at a cost of $464,000. The commission spent another $550,000 to remodel it to meet courthouse needs while the Limestone County Courthouse was being renovated.

Seibert’s charge is to turn the building into office space for three local entities — community corrections, state pardon and parole and office space for the Council on Aging. County officials want to emphasize the Athens Senior Center is not moving or closing just because the Council on Aging staff is moving.

Commission Chairman Mark Yarbrough explained the COA needed to move out of the senior center not only because of space issues, but also because fears over confidentiality. COA staff often process paperwork for its clients, some of which may contain sensitive medical information.

“This should address those concerns and put (the staff) in a nice facility at hardly any cost to the county,” he said.

Yarbrough estimated that because the work is being done in-house, it will cost $10,000 to $15,000 to reconfigure the building. He explained the county is paying $30,000 in rent per year to house the aforementioned departments at the Crutcher Center, just across the street from the former judicial center. This is all part of an effort by the commission to get out of the rent business.

Still yet to be determined is where the county’s maintenance department, which also shares space in the Crutcher Center, will be relocated.

Work in progress

Seibert said the process of converting four courtrooms and related offices into new office space hasn’t been terribly challenging, and he was able to reuse existing counters and doors.

Each agency head approached Seibert with a list of requests, including office sizes. Fulfilling those requests has thus far involved rerouting electricity, tearing out walls, covering up door openings and making new door openings. It’s also created a substantial amount of dust.

Logistical challenges aside, Seibert said the biggest challenges were tearing out the daises in each of the courtrooms.

“They were in there pretty good,” he said with a laugh.

Another challenge has been replacing and sanding Sheetrock in a building with 16-foot ceilings. Luckily, the workers have access to a county-owned lift with a platform.

The Council on Aging would likely be the first agency to move into the reconfigured building. Seibert said there was no timeline on when the entire project would be completed, but he was hopeful it would all be done by early next year.