NEW COURTROOM — Brooke County Magistrate Robin Snyder discusses the new courtroom for the county’s magistrate court, with Chief Sheriff’s Deputy Scott Addams. The courtroom is seen as temporary until the Brooke County Commission is able to complete a planned addition to the county courthouse for all of the county’s judicial facilities. -- Warren Scott

WELLSBURG — The Brooke County Commission has chosen McKinley and Associates of Wheeling to plan the proposed addition to the county courthouse.

The commissioners said a contract with the firm calls for it to receive less than 10 percent of the project’s total cost, which hasn’t been determined but has been estimated at $5 million to $10 million.

County Commissioner A.J. Thomas said McKinley and Associates was one of four engineering firms that submitted qualifications to the commission’s building commission, a volunteer panel charged with pursuing funding for the addition.

Commission President Tim Ennis said the board will pursue loans for the addition, which will be built on the vacant lot by the courthouse and is expected to be equal in size to that building.

He said plans for it were spurred by two judicial orders citing concerns about security and handicap access to the county magistrate court facilities in the Community Bank building on Charles Street.

The magistrate court and its offices were moved there from the bottom floor of the courthouse when it was flooded in 2004.

In recent weeks, crews with Hukill Contracting of Wellsburg have established a new magistrate courtroom, with a new bench and walls, in the lunchroom at the courthouse known by many as the green room, for its former green floor.

County Magistrate Robin Snyder thanked the commissioners and everyone involved with the move, including custodians Larry Brownwall and Paula Huff-Smith and Brooke County sheriff’s deputies who volunteered to move many files and remaining furniture not transferred from the bank by a moving company.

She also thanked other county departments and the commissioners themselves for giving up some office space to accommodate the court’s return to the building.

Snyder said some features of the courtroom don’t meet specific criteria set for the state’s courtroom facilities by the West Virginia Supreme Court, but state court officials have granted the commission some leeway because it’s seen as temporary until the annex can be built.

Following the meeting, the commissioners were asked whether the county’s court facilities could remain in the original building, which houses the sheriff’s department, a holding cell and the courtroom used by the circuit court.

The annex then could be used for other county offices, it was suggested.

They said it would be easier to build new court facilities to the state Supreme Court’s specifications, with improved security measures, than to renovate the existing building.

Commissioner Stacey Wise said there are plans to maintain the original courtroom, which might be used for public meetings, when the addition is done.

In related business, Wise announced the commission has been awarded a $100,000 state courthouse facilities grant for a new heating and cooling system for the courthouse.

Wise submitted the grant, which requires a $10,000 local match.

She said the commission hopes to move as much of the current heating system from the bottom floor as possible and replace it with a system that is more energy and cost efficient.

“Our goal is to get everything out of the flood plain,” Wise said.

In other business, County Clerk Kim Barbetta said no bids had been received yet for the paving of Mac Barnes Drive though the deadline is 4 p.m. Friday.

The road leads to the county’s animal shelter and the recycling center used by the county’s solid waste authority.