AUSTIN CO. SEEKING FUNDS FOR REPAIRS TO COURTHOUSE
Austin County Commissioners recently agreed to pursue funds for repairs to the Austin County Courthouse, just shy of its 60th birthday.
Commissioners set out to apply to add the courthouse to the National Register of Historic Places; to contract with Burns Architecture to look at 2016 plans for repairs to the courthouse; and to apply for the Hurricane Harvey Disaster Assistance National Park Service Emergency Supplemental Grant, managed by the Texas Historical Commission.
The grant is a 100 percent reimbursement if approved, and the county could receive as much as $100,000 for the fixes. In order to apply for the grant, the county needed to apply to add the courthouse to the register of historic locations.
By doing this, the county would need to enter into a 20-year agreement with the Texas Historical Commission, making sure the grant money is being spent appropriately. The county also needed to hire an architect to review the plans the county already has from the historical commission.
The current courthouse was built after the previous one was destroyed by a fire in 1960.