Will County going for demolition contract for old courthouse

The Will County Executive’s Office may award a courthouse demolition contract as early as Friday after what was likely the next-to-last effort to save the building failed.

The County Board’s Executive Committee on Thursday voted 7-5 against the creation of a committee to take a closer look at the potential for reusing the 1969 courthouse building.

Will County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant later said her office is ready to award a demolition contract as soon as paperwork is completed.

“We’re ready to go,” Bertino-Tarrant said. “It could be [Friday]. If not, early next week.”

Bertino-Tarrant said her office was awaiting the vote by the Executive Committee before proceeding.

“We wanted to respect the process that was happening,” she said.

Preservation advocates now are pinning their hopes on state intervention.

The county still needs to get a demolition permit before a contractor can proceed, and the permit process requires approval from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

The U.S. Department of the Interior earlier this year placed the courthouse on the National Register of Historic Places in large part because it serves as an example of the Brutalist school of architecture that was prevalent at the time of its construction.

That status, however, does not save the building from demolition.

The county has a tentative agreement with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources that would allow demolition after a historical record, including documentation and photos, of the building is completed, said Mike Mahoney, chief of staff for the executive’s office.

Mahoney said the executive’s office has been talking with the state agency since September.

Working out the details of a mediation agreement with the state agency may slow down the permit for demolition, Mahoney said. But he believed the contractor could begin stripping down the interior of the building in the coming weeks while awaiting the demolition permit.

Preservation advocates, meanwhile, look to the state review of the demolition as a last chance for saving the building.

County Board member Dan Butler, R-Frankfort, who urged the Executive Committee to approve the exploratory committee, said preservation advocates have appealed to the state agency to stand in the way of demolition.

“We reached out to the state,” Butler said after the Executive Committee vote. “We told them what we told the committee here – that there wasn’t due diligence.”

Butler and other preservation advocates contend that the county is moving ahead with demolition without first exploring the possibilities of redeveloping the building for new uses.