A $107,000 Courthouse Still Without a Roof
Thurston County's grand new courthouse blows past its March 1 deadline with $73,000 already paid out — and a local builder predicts the final bill will top $150,000, every dollar of it leaving the county.
The new Thurston county court house, although a handsome structure in appearance, will be a lesson to the people in many ways. The terms of the contract required its completion on March 1, which was Tuesday last, for the sum of $107,000. On the other hand, the contractors have already received $73,000, and the roof is not yet on the structure. A practical builder said this morning that the building will not be turned over to the county for fully six months, and will cost fully $150,000, all of which goes outside the county.
“the contractors have already received $73,000, and the roof is not yet on the structure.”
Public building projects running over budget while the money flows to out-of-town contractors is one of the oldest complaints in Olympia — the same argument resurfaces every time a school bond or a new city hall goes to the ballot. The 1892 courthouse eventually passed into state hands and still stands on the Capitol Campus, a monument to a contract nobody quite controlled. Then as now, the question was less whether to build than who would pay for the overrun.
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