A portion of the Montgomery County Courthouse resumed business on April 13 as the Montgomery County Commission, treasurer, county clerk and prosecuting attorney offices were reopened.

The entire courthouse was closed in August to the public due to a renovation project that includes window and roof replacements, masonry repairs, asbestos abatement and the installation of new lighting and ceilings. Due to the renovations, the county commissioners and county clerk had to work from the Montgomery County Communications Center at 250 Pickering.

“It was a little longer than we anticipated,” 2nd District Commissioner Doug Lensing said.

The county commissioners held their first meeting at the courthouse in eight months on April 13. 1st District Commissioner Dave Teeter said he’s glad that he, Lensing and Presiding Commissioner Ryan Poston are back at work in the courthouse.

“Sometimes you have to go through the bad to get to the good,” Teeter said. “We limped through the bad during renovation time. Hopefully, we’ll be able to enjoy the good for a lot of years in the future. That’s what I tell people. It’s like when you do work at your house. All of us have dealt with renovation in our own personal situations. It is not fun.”

The county commissioners had their desk renovated with a new facade and countertop. Jeremy Cox and Gary Brock designed a Montgomery County logo and installed it in front of the desk.

“A shout out to those two guys for what they have done,” Teeter said.

The county commission, treasurer, county clerk and prosecuting attorney offices are located on the second floor of the courthouse. Teeter said the third floor is not open at this time since there is more work to be done on the roof.

“Roof work is so dependent on weather,” Teeter said. “There were four days in which they couldn’t work because it rained here for four days. So there were periods in which they had to push things back.”

Teeter said an open house event for the renovated courthouse will likely be scheduled in the summer.

“We don’t want to have an open house and not yet show people everything,” Teeter said. “So as soon as we get all of the roof work done and we get the last touch ups on paint, then we’ll schedule something.”

Teeter said the county roads and bridges department helped with moving the items back to the courthouse.

“They were a big part of it,” Teeter said. “The staff pitched in and helped carry boxes and load them in and out. But Dave (Rhodes) from the road and bridge crew helped move them out and helped move them back in.”

Veregy, a company based out of Phoenix, Ariz., worked on the $5.2 million project. Last year, it finished a renovation project at the Adair County Courthouse in Kirksville.

“Veregy has agreed that they’re going to put together some before and after panels and different things,” Teeter said. “So when we do an open house, we’ll be able to see first hand exactly what shapes some things were in that the average citizen never saw from driving by the building.”