Wiedenman Construction Inc. of Huron has been awarded the low bid of $172,298 to remodel an area of the first floor of the Beadle County Courthouse to accommodate the state’s attorney’s office and its five employees.

Beadle County commissioners awarded the contract after opening three bids on Thursday. Other bidders were Todd Brueske Construction of Woonsocket and Mueller Lumber of Mitchell.

The board also awarded an alternate bid of $16,920 to remove the false ceiling in the main first-floor hallway and relocate pipes and conduits so they are hidden.

All three bids were close, with only about $5,000 separating the highest from the lowest.

Wiedenman Construction will begin the project about the first of August, with completion anticipated about Dec. 18.

The goal is to move the state’s attorney’s office out of The Inn Business Center in downtown Huron before the lease expires at the end of the year.

Commissioners are working with Kyle Raph of Koch Hazard Architects of Sioux Falls and project consultant Dick Freske of Huron.

Relocating the state’s attorney’s office will save about $15,000 a year in rent and utilities. Based on the construction contract, there will be about a 15-year payback for the cost of the courthouse renovation.

But commissioners also said they wanted to have the state’s attorney’s office in the courthouse.

A proposal considered earlier to create seven new off-street parking stalls just north of the west driveway and between the courthouse and the Regional Correction Center has been put on hold until at least next year, said commissioner Linda Marcus, board chair.

To accommodate the state’s attorney’s office, the state driver’s license exam station was moved out of the courthouse and into Centre Plaza. Commissioners now want to wait to see if the changes will have a negative impact on traffic flow and parking around the courthouse. If so, the additional parking spaces will be constructed with a lot of the work done by county employees.

The commission is planning to pay for half the remodeling cost out of its budget and borrow the balance. Marcus said the board is also looking at a lease-back program option.

The equalization office will be moved to the north into former emergency management office space, an area mostly used for storage now. The state’s attorney’s office will then occupy the driver’s license exam area as well as the existing equalization office space.

A new conference room that can be shared by several offices is also included in the plans.

“When we get it all done, I think it will be a really great working situation,” Marcus said.

As the commission proceeded with its plans for renovation, it was discovered that two west windows in the former driver’s license exam room were covered over with sheetrock. On the exterior of the building the windows can be seen but they are only single-pane glass.

The space will be opened up, and new thermal windows will be installed. It was an added expense the board hadn’t expected.

“Any time you remodel anything else that is old, you always come up with some surprises,” Marcus said.

The commission’s study of the courthouse also uncovered the fact that many of rooms have fabric ceilings.

Removing the drop ceiling in the first-floor hallway is another added expense, but is in line with the commission’s intent to retain and, in that case, return to the original architecture of a beautiful building.