County courthouse parking will be a bit tighter as building renovation work starts

LANCASTER — Those visiting the Fairfield County Courthouse at Main and High streets the next few months may experience a parking squeeze as workers renovate the building's exterior.

The parking spots on High Street adjacent to the courthouse are gone, as is the right turn lane from High Street to Main Street. Drivers wanting to turn right must use the middle lane now, county facilities manager Dennis Keller said. He said the city may mark it as such.

The spots and turning lane will be unavailable until the $5.9 million courthouse renovation is completed around October or November to allow access for construction crews, equipment and material. The construction schedule is dependent upon the weather, of course.

A major component of the work will be the restoration of the courthouse's sandstone exterior and giving it a new roof.

"By the time winter weather comes back we should be done with this exterior work and that (parking and turning lane) should be opened back up," Keller said. "That's the plan."

While the sidewalk on High Street by the courthouse is also closed, nothing is closed on the other side of the street.

"It's always painful to do construction," Keller said. "But you've got to kind of take the medicine and get well. So we hope we'll get through it and everything will be good by wintertime. I guess the good news is it's during the summer and having to walk a little bit further is a little bit easier in good weather than in bad weather."

The county also plans to close a 10-spot parking lot between the courthouse and Hall of Justice that the commissioners and other county officials use.

"Those will be displaced to the bigger parking lots that we have across the street," Keller said. "They're all aware that they're going to have to, in the summertime, park across the street."

MORE: County starts major renovation of courthouse building set for completion by year's end

He said that lot will probably close in three or four weeks and remain closed until August. While the public doesn't use that lot, having the public officials park across the street in the public lot may tighten parking there.

There is a parking lot across Main Street where the former county jail one sat. Some spots there are reserved, but Keller said they may lose that designation to open up more public parking spots.

"There's some reserve spots over there now that were really unnecessary," Keller said. "So I'm trying to use them first so that we don't impact the public parking spaces as much, I guess would be the way to put it."

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There are several short-term parking spots on Main Street by the courthouse. Keller said the county may have to eventually block them while crews work on the front of the building.

"But not long-term or permanent," he said. "It's only going to be as needed. Like if they have to position a lift or a crane in there for a day to lift something or whatever, then we would set up some orange cones there and block it off. But we're not closing that off on a long-term basis."

jbarron@gannett.com

740-304-9296

Twitter: @JeffDBarron

This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Courthouse parking will be tighter as building renovation work starts