County Budgeting $200,000 to Close In, Add Restrooms & Offices at Founders Park

Fayette County Commissioners set a budget of $200,000 to build new restrooms and office space inside Founders Park on the Courthouse Square.

The space, situated at 252 W. College Street, currently serves as an outdoor seating area with historical displays commemorating Fayette County’s earliest settlers. County Judge Joe Weber has wanted to build new public restrooms on the Square since taking office last year. The only public restrooms available on the Square are the ones inside the Courthouse, which requires the Courthouse to remain open during weekend events on the Square.

Weber also proposes closing-in the space and building some new offices inside the park space that could be used for a future county economic development or tourism office.

“We want to climatize it,” Weber said. It’s hot in the summer and very cold in the winter. We’ll cover it and put some nice restrooms in there. There’s also space that could be used for docents, county tourism or economic development. I see it as a place where we can … bring our chambers of commerce from the different towns together, the unincorporated communities, antiques fair and whatever else is going on around the county. It would help us to coordinate some of that.”

Weber’s predecessor, former County Judge Ed Janecka, led the effort to turn the space into a park honoring the County’s founders. Among the artifacts on display are the millstones from William Rabb’s gristmill in Rabb’s Prairie, which were manufactured in Scotland and rolled to Fayette County from the dock in Galveston.

“Judge Ed spent some time with a lot of other people planning that thing,” said Pct. 3 Commissioner Harvey Berckenhoff.

“They’ve got that big millstone down there. Are you going to keep those things or try to incorporate them somehow?”

Weber said he plans to preserve the historic features of the park.

“I want to make sure we have ample restrooms in there,” said Pct. 1 Commissioner Jason McBroom. “I want to see multiple men’s and multiple women’s restrooms.”

McBroom also said he wanted to see one or two small offices and storage space as part of the design.

“In the future, if we do have an economic development office where someone is working for us, they could call that their home.”

McBroom added that any alterations to front of the space, such as a new facade, would have to be approved by La Grange Main Street, the branch of the city government that regulates the downtown historic district. Weber said the City of La Grange agreed to fund half of the cost of the restrooms. The Lower Colorado River Authority also awarded the County a $50,000 grant to halp fund construction.

McBroom called for setting a project budget before beginning the design phase.

“I think that’s how we got in trouble with the EMS building,” McBroom said, referring to the county’s recent overbudget construction project, the new Fayette County EMS Headquarters.

In its grant application to LCRA, the County estimated the cost at $250,000.

“Why don’t we (set the budget) around $200,000, because it seems like everything goes over and that will give us a little wiggle room,” McBroom said.

Weber asked for a motion.

“And let’s put a limit in there of $225,000,” Weber said.

McBroom made the motion, but he included his initial proposal of $200,000. Pct. 2 Commissioner Luke Sternadel seconded the motion, and it passed unanimously.

Commissioners also voted unanimously to advertise a request for proposals from architecture firms for the design on the new restrooms and office space.