Lawrence county's courthouse, that sits in the center of the square in Mount Vernon, is more than 100 years old. After the issue failed once, county residents approved a sales tax increase in 2007 to finance a new judicial center.

Well, as you may have guessed, the delays are due to weather. Foundation work on the new courthouse began in early November, and eight months later, there's still no roof.

The concrete exterior walls of the new Lawrence County Courthouse are in place, but it's taken a while to get to this point. The contractor, Crossland Construction, tells KY3 news they've had to used 42 weather days since the start. County officials know the weather hasn't cooperated. The area has had heavy rains that make a muddy mess of a construction site, and ice and snow during the winter months.

On the original schedule, the building would be about four months from completion, but now the deadline is about six months away. Crossland Construction says they plan to begin pouring concrete for the first floor on Tuesday, and the second floor a week later. They hope to have a roof by the first week of August. But everything depends on the weather.

Construction workers say every time it rains, the building fills up with water, because there's no roof yet. In one of the elevator shafts, about a foot and a half of water sits from the last rain.

"We try to consider what they've been through," says Lawrence County Presiding Commissioner Sam Goodman. But county officials are anxious to get into the new and improved building. Knowing when they will, would help with scheduling court cases. They say the space will be nice, but most of all, they look forward to the added security.
"We really don't have any kind of metal detectors or anything in this facility, and it really gets to be dangerous," Goodman says.

The contractor is anxious to get the job done too. They'll be working seven days a week once framing starts. Right now, if they go over the current January 8th completion date, they'd have to pay a daily penalty. "The contractor, I'm sure, is doing his best, but we'd like to see him pick up the pace as much as possible, but we also understand there are certain limitations," Goodman says.

Again, the current completion deadline is January 8th, but that date could change. Once the roof is on, it should by easier to work around the weather. The price of construction, by the way, is about 5.6 million dollars. An interesting fact- this is Lawrence County's 4th courthouse. The first one was built for 600 dollars in 1846.

All the non-judicial offices like the county appraiser, commissioners, clerk and other offices will still be housed in the current courthouse.