T-R PHOTO BY ADAM SODDERS - The second floor of Great Western Bank, 11 N. 1st Ave., will be the new home of the Marshall County offices of auditor and recorder, treasurer and board of supervisors. The supervisors approved a lease for office space in the building during a special board meeting Monday afternoon.

With the Marshall County Courthouse looking at lengthy repairs, several offices — both state and county — have been forced to move out of the historic building.

The Marshall County Board of Supervisors approved two lease agreements to find new homes for county and court offices while the courthouse is repaired at a special meeting Monday afternoon.

“When we talked to them, we talked to them for potentially a year,” said board Chairman Bill Patten of the agreement for office space at Great Western Bank, 11 N. First Ave.

County Auditor and Recorder Nan Benson said the space will house public-facing county offices including the auditor and recorder, treasurer, board of supervisors and zoning and planning.

“It will be for 1,800 square feet of office space, plus all the common areas, restroom and everything — basically, it’s all the second floor except the server room,” she said.

The agreement will see the county pay the bank $1,200 a month for the space, coming to a rate of about $8 per square foot assuming the space is used for a year. The lease is fixed for six months and will be on a month-by-month basis after that.

Benson said utility costs to the county will be based on “the incremental cost of utilities that (Great Western Bank) is paying now versus what they paid a year ago, so that’d be the difference in utilities.”

The county will also provide security, as well as pay for cleaning services on the second floor of the building.

Benson said the county offices at Great Western Bank will have a “soft opening” Tuesday and will continue to grow service capacity from there. County Information Technology Director James Nehring said it’s likely the offices will have full internet and computer access at the location by week’s end.

Also approved was a lease agreement with RACOM Properties LLC for space at 11 E. Church St. for $4,500 per month for 6,500 square feet for a rate of about $8.30 per square foot over a year; utilities are set to cost the county $645 per month.

“This is going to be used just for the courts,” Patten said of the RACOM space.

Benson said there will be three courtrooms operating in the space, two small and one large. Also housed at the building will be the clerk of court, juvenile court and district court.

“This will be a six-month lease with month-to-month after that,” she said. “There are some shared things the landlord will take care of, at the Max building — the snow removal, the common area cleaning, light fixtures, roof, all of those kind of things that are more common to the entire building.”

The court system will move into RACOMs in about three weeks, Benson said. Right now, the clerk of court, cashier, criminal courts, magistrate court, district associate court and juvenile court are housed at the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office, 2369 Jessup Ave. Civil courts for the county are currently housed in Story County at 1315 South B. Ave., Nevada.

The next Marshall County Board of Supervisors meeting is set for 9 a.m. Aug. 7 with no meeting location yet decided.

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Contact Adam Sodders at (641) 753-6611 or asodders@timesrepublican.com