ABOVE: Work continues on the Martin County Courthouse roof in Fairmont. The new scaffolding on the upper part was put up in order to install four eagle statues.

FAIRMONT– The Martin County Board of Commissioners were given a new expected completion date for work to the Martin County Courthouse roof during its meeting on Tuesday. Lon Gorsch of Renaissance Roofing said they’re on track to be complete by the end of October.

Work on the courthouse roof and dome began in early 2019 and while the project carried an original price tag of about $1.9 million, there have been a number of added expenses along the way as more problems have turned up that have needed to be addressed.

However, the commissioners learned Tuesday that while the completion date has been pushed back slightly, there are no new added expenses.

“The rooftop units, the schedule has been moved back a couple of times now to early October,” Gorsch said.

He said currently they’re working on fully soldered flat seam areas on the corners of the roof and the gutters on the east and west, or lake and street side of the courthouse. Gorsch said the gutters on the lake side are complete and the drains are installed on the street side.

Gorsch said the additional scaffolding around the upper portion of the courthouse was put up to install the four eagle statues on the dome, which will hopefully be started on next week.

“It’s a little unclear how long it will take to get the eagles installed. The first one will be the hard one because we want to make sure they’re perched at the right angle,” Gorsch said.

As for work on the more visible part of the roof, Gorsch said that work will start after the eagles are installed, likely around early August.

“That’s the order of operations. We have to stat at the bottom and work our way up,” Gorsch said.

He said they’re considering adding some more people to help get them back on track time-wise as weather issues, namely windy days, have affected the timeline.

Commissioner Elliot Belgard commented that the finish date went from September to early October to end of October.

“The lion’s share of the work should be done before those rooftop units are delivered… it’s unfortunate we’re being delayed on those units so it’s hard to cement things in,” Gorsch said.

Moving to other matters, the board approved appointing Taylor McGowan as interim county attorney. McGowan takes over for long-time county attorney, Terry Viesselman, who retired at the end of June.

McGowan was appointed through Dec. 31 and the board was asked to grant McGowan a leave of absence for his current role as assistant county attorney. Should someone else file and become elected as county attorney, McGowan will be able to return to his role as assistant county attorney.

The county’s Human Resources Director, Leigha Johnson, shared that the county attorney’s office has two other positions to fill. The board was asked to consider the hire of Suelana Kinney as assistant county attorney. Kinney has been in the county attorney’s office in Kandiyohi County since 2014.

“We were awestruck when we got her application,” Johnson said.

The commissioners also considered changing the job description and classification of new associate county attorney position. Belgard explained there’s someone who has just graduated from law school and hasn’t taken the Bar exam yet but wants to work for them.

“It’s common in private practice to help that person pass the Bar. There are duties that person can do for us and then stay on and work for us,” Belgard explained.

Commissioner Richard Koons commented that they have been looking to hire for a few assistant county attorneys since October.

“This is hopefully a step in the right direction,” Belgard said.

The board approved of the new job description and also moved to approve recruitment to fill the new role.