ST. ANSGAR, IA-At more than 150 years old, it's definitely a historic building - even listed on the national register of historic places.
But with an old building, comes old-building problems and that's what those who work in the Mitchell County Courthouse in Osage deal with every day.
On Wednesday night, county leaders gave folks a chance to learn more about the problem and share their thoughts in a series of meetings.
Mitchell County Supervisors say their courthouse is not in the best condition.
In fact, they say it's not even a safe building to work in
So now it's the issue of either re-building or re-habilitating it and the community is weighing in.
This courthouse building has been around since 1858 and its age is beginning to show.
Mitchell County Board of Supervisors Member Bob Marrell said, "Not a lot of insulation in the old building, bad windows, inefficient heating and cooling systems."
There's asbestos, the roof is falling apart, and there are limited emergency exits.
Not to mention studies have shown it's in violation of building codes..too many to even count.
It's a recipe for disaster and the county board of supervisors says now is the time to make a big decision.
Marrell said, "So I guess you can tell this building needs some work, extensive work, or it needs to be replaced."
Some members of the community think starting over, and re-building the entire thing may work out the best, cost-wise and to get the problems fixed faster.
Mitchell County Board of Supervisors Member Joel Voaklander said, "I guess we need to make our decision after we get all of the facts and not emotions. We can build a brand new courthouse that looks exactly like that one."
But there's another group who is rallying support to rehabilitate it.
Betty McCarthy is the President of “Friends of the Mitchell County Courthouse. She said, "We're really intent on finding as many people as we can that have an interest in the preservation and rehabilitation of the courthouse."
She says by choosing that option the original structure and character of the building would be the same.
McCarthy said, "It's a real treasure for our county and i believe the building can be rehabilitated and will just really preserve the integrity on the outside, the inside can be brought up to date so it's the 21st century."
But this group is firm on the idea of making sure the original character of the building lives on.
McCarthy said, "We're just too quick to tear down our historical buildings and I just believe that we should do everything possible to save the treasure that we have in this county."
Ultimately the decision is up to the supervisors; however they do hope these meetings provide them with some insight of what way the community wants to go.
Meanwhile, the Mitchell County Courthouse was just placed on preservation Iowa's most endangered list of historical buildings.
There are three more community meetings: The next one is on Wednesday, February at the Stacyville Public Library followed by meetings in other towns on February 8 and 16.
They are all at six-thirty in the evening.
