State Gives Comal County $3.4-million to Restore Historic Courthouse
After 5 years of work by county officials, the restoration of the historic Comal County Courthouse will soon be underway, after news came down Friday that the State of Texas, through the Texas Historical Commission, had allocated Comal County 3.4 million dollars for the restoration of its courthouse on the Main Plaza in downtown New Braunfels. Pct. 4 Commissioner Jan Kennady has spearheaded the effort to get courthouse restoration dollars from the state, and she says now the courthouse will return to its 1898 glory, by taking off the old jail, having the 3rd floor removed, and other efforts, restoring the old courthouse to its original look.
The entire project is expected to cost around 8-million dollars, and Comal County has already been saving money for the project, with about 5.2-million dollars sitting in reserves. Add in the 3.4-million dollars from the state, and the project is ready to go. In fact, architectural plans are already in hand, so Kennady says the restoration project can start almost immediately, as soon as they go out for bids, and figure out where to put the employees that currently work inside that building.
Again, Comal County was given 3.4-million dollars for the Courthouse Restoration project, as part of a 20-million dollar effort this year by the Texas Historical Commission to fund renovations and restorations at historic courthouses across the state. Comal County had been skipped over in the last few rounds of grants, but this time around was 1 of only 3 courthouses in the state to receive more than 3-million dollars in funding. LaSalle County was given 3.5-million and Hamilton County was given 3.18 million. In all, 20 courthouses in Texas were granted funds in this most recent round of grants. In the previous five rounds of the program, the State has allocated 207-million dollars for more than 40 of the state’s historic county courthouses, resulting in the creation of more than 77-hundred jobs and more than 17-million dollars generated in local taxes. We’ll have much more on the plans for restoring the historic Comal County Courthouse in the coming weeks, here on KGNB and online at kgnb.am.
