At the November 17th Board of Commissioners meeting, Pickens County Commissioner Robert Jones announced the approval of three bids concerning the renovation and expansion project of the Pickens County Court House. The first of the bids was for the demolition and asbestos removal part of the project for $148,300, awarded to D.H. Griffin Wrecking Company Inc. from Ellenwood Georgia. The asbestos will be removed from the roof of the Court House. Although the bid was accepted, no contract has been signed.

The second bid was for the removal, restoration, and re-installation of marble from the Court House. Crystal Marble Company of Cumming Georgia won the bid to do the job for $535,027. This portion of the project will begin in the next two weeks. According to Jones, 20-feet sections of the marble part of the Court House will be removed and shipped to Nelson, where these sections will be cleaned and refurbished. During this part of the process, the sections of marble will also be fitted with steel-rail foundations. The marble sections will then return to Jasper and be installed once again on the building.

On behalf of the county, Jones also adopted a resolution to additional or alternative facilities for sessions or sitting of any Superior, Magistrate, or Probate Court proceedings. According to the resolutions, the facilities are located at 35 West Church Street in Jasper. At this point in the project, the construction has yet to begin, but the offices have been moved from the Court House to the interim facilities, also located on 35 West Church Street, in the old Federal Building, also known as the .Old Post Office.

These projects are part of the larger Court House renovation project, approved in August by Commissioner Jones. In August, Jones signed an agreement with JKH Architects of Dalton for the preplanning of the project. In a recent conversation with FYN, Commissioner Jones said the construction part of the project will be put out for bid in early January. Here, a new addition will be added to the back L—shaped part of the building. Jones said the he expects construction of this section to begin sometime in April of 2012, but did not indicate how long the project will last.