Video: Construction for the Webster County Courthouse is Right Around the Corner

WEBSTER COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – After more than four years, we have new details involving the plans to rebuild the Webster County Courthouse.

Supervisors met about the issue today.

The courthouse burned down. Now, a groundbreaking could be just a few weeks away.

The county, a non-profit group, and an attorney for the non-profit group, met and signed papers at today’s two board meetings.

The signings are the start of the first step in getting construction started.

Starting the construction process is something residents have been wanting to know about since the old courthouse burned to the ground a few years ago.

This is the last image Webster County residents have of the courthouse and many want to know when a new one is coming.

“The question around town is basically, you know, about the courthouse and things like that and when it’s going to be built because a lot of people are tired of driving to another community to go to court,” says resident Ashley Pittman.

“They’re just wondering when it’s going to get put up and when they’re going to start building and stuff like that,” says Rayford Cork.

When, is just around the corner with today’s signing of a lease purchase agreement between the Golden Triangle Planning and Development District and the county.

“The non-profit is borrowing the money to fund the loan for them to enter the contract with a contractor, to build it for the non-profit and then the non-profit in turn, will get lease payments from the county once they’re moving into the building. So, it’s another method authorized by Mississippi law to require public buildings by cities and counties,” says Butler Snow Attorney Lucien Bourgeois.

Today’s deal means the county is on the way to a nearly 18,000 square foot building that will house county offices and chancery and circuit courts.

It also marks the end of a four year battle with insurance adjusters and insurance companies, while trying to secure the best spot for the building.

“So yes, it will go smooth after we get to the point of closing. You’ll see a groundbreaking within a month, probably,” says Bourgeois.

If the weather cooperates, the new courthouse should be read within 18 months.

We tried to speak with supervisors during the meeting and they directed us to Lucien Bourgeois, because they didn’t feel comfortable explaining the details of the resolution they signed earlier today.