Windows at the Courthouse

Last night, after the Airport Committee's hour-long meeting, the Board of Supervisors Public Works Committee met very briefly to accept a bid from Window Specialists, Inc., for $425,000 to replace all the windows at the Columbia County courthouse. 

Just prior to the meeting, which was hastily convened and lasted just long enough for the vote to be taken, Gossips spoke with First Ward supervisor Sarah Sterling, who, responding to an earlier inquiry, explained that the possibility of repairing the surviving original windows had been investigated, but it was found that it would cost more to repair them than it would to replace them. Of course, the strongest argument for repairing original windows is that a hundred-year-old window properly repaired has a greater life expectancy than a new replacement window, but that is something that seems never to be considered.

The courthouse is included in the locally designated Union-Allen-South Front Street Historic District. Although the county maintains that its buildings are not subject to Hudson's historic preservation law and even insisted, successfully, that its Warren & Wetmore former bank building at the corner of Warren and Sixth streets be excluded from the Warren Street Historic District, the plans for the expansion of the courthouse and the alterations to achieve ADA compliance were presented to the Historic Preservation Commission. It will be interesting to see if the plans for the replacement windows are presented to the HPC.
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