When Veregy senior project developer Ryan Becker entered the Montgomery County Courthouse at about noon on May 23, he was definitely impressed with the way the building looked inside and outside.

Improvements were made in the courtroom, storage room, the basement, ceiling, roof, basement and HVAC system. They were part of a $5.2-million renovation project that Veregy made on the courthouse.

“When you come into a building like this and we get to revive it and make it better, it’s always a great feeling,” Becker said. “The difference between the first time I showed up and coming back here seeing the yards growing in, it looks like a totally different building.”

The courthouse held a six-hour open house to allow the public to see the improvements on May 23, over a year after it reopened. It was closed for eight months due to the renovation project that included window and roof replacements, masonry repairs, asbestos replacement and the installation of new lighting and ceilings.

During the open house, Becker got a tour from 1st District Commissioner Dave Teeter to see the renovated building. He was the only Veregy representative in attendance.

Veregy serves 19 different states with main offices in Phoenix, Ariz., Chicago, Ill., and St. Louis. There is also a satellite office in Jefferson City, where Becker is from.

“We used to be a company called CTS and we all came together with a bunch of other companies,” Becker said. “We’re now Veregy, but we’ve always been around the state of Missouri doing these projects.”

Veregy, which was founded five years ago, was selected to make the courthouse project after the company did some work at Montgomery County High School. It finished a renovation project at the Adair County Courthouse in Kirksville in 2022.

Becker said he first discussed plans about the project to county commissioners Dave Teeter, Doug Lensing and Ryan Poston.

“Three years ago, I met these guys at a restaurant up there because we were doing a job for (R-II Superintendent) Tracy Bottoms up there at the school,” Becker said. “He introduced me to Dave. Then, I called our sales lady and I got her involved with these guys and we kind of moved from there. We did an assessment of the building and we told them this is what we think needs to be done and here’s the price that we can do it for.”

Work at the courthouse began in May 2022, when some trees near the building were cut down so a ground source heating and cooling system can be installed in the front lawn.

“People won’t even know that there are 40-50 wells dug in the ground out there in the new area of the yard that is actually doing the heating and cooling in this place now,” Becker said. “We did a brand new geothermal system in this building. That’s what controls all of the heating and cooling. It’s a huge energy saver because it stores heat in the ground during the summer, then it pulls that heat back out of the ground and it heats the building in the wintertime.”