T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY Marshall County Conservation Director Emily Herring, right, discusses plans to improve the county’s log cabin in hopes of reinsuring it in the future while Shomo-Madsen Insurance President Bobby Shomo, left, looks on during Wednesday morning’s Board of Supervisors meeting. The supervisors and Shomo also discussed the valuation of the courthouse.

The Marshall County Board of Supervisors spent a good portion of the first half of their regular meeting Wednesday discussing a familiar topic — the courthouse — with a familiar face, Shomo-Madsen Insurance President Bobby Shomo.

Shomo described the building they were gathered inside, which was badly damaged by the 2018 tornado and closed for nearly five years as a result, as “precious to our county” and “such a recognizable structure.” Referencing slides displayed over a projector, he reflected on that fateful day.

“That’s when life changed for us following the tornado on July 19, 2018 when the cupola was struck by the tornado. A couple of bounces on the way down fractured some water lines, and $40 million later, here we are,” he said.

From there, Shomo got into the meat of his presentation and discussed the insurance policy covering the building after an updated survey and appraisal. At the time the tornado hit, the courthouse was insured for $10.8 million, and he said what saved them was the coverages being blanketed, with all county property countywide being insured for $48 million.

“We came pretty close to exhausting that towards the end. Towards the end, there were sleepless nights as we were closing in on the top end of the coverages that we had,” he said.

After the tornado and derecho, EMC, the county’s insurer, no longer took responsibility for completing replacement cost estimations, and that duty now falls on the county. The latest estimation, according to Shomo, is that it would take about $50 million to replace the courthouse, or $841 per square foot.

“That would really confuse a lot of builders out there. Probably $300, $350, maybe $400 a square foot would be the most that we’re seeing right now. This structure just isn’t like any other structure. The historicity of it makes it different,” he said. “The limestone quarry where this building got its limestone from is not available anymore.”

Shomo then dove into the county’s options for valuing the courthouse in terms and said the real property is insured for $45,561,691 with 90 percent coinsurance. With the new replacement cost approaching $50 million, he asked if the board wanted to increase or reduce the valuation or simply keep it at its current rate.

“We meet the specifications of this, but I’m not sure that we want to have that self-retention of $5 million when there’s a way to get around it,” he said.

If the valuation was raised to $50 million with 100 percent coinsurance, the additional premium would be around $5,000. After presenting various options on increasing the coverage, Shomo also noted that EMC was not willing to offer renewal terms on the county’s log cabin due to its age and updates. At bare minimum, he said, the roof would need to be replaced before coverage would be possible.

“I wish I could find coverage, and I have worked tremendously hard to try to find coverage. And I know (Conservation Director Emily Herring) has as well, (we) just can’t get it done right now,” Shomo said. “And where I want to be careful is this is not the hill we want to die on with the hardness of the industry right now. EMC’s paid out a ton of money to the county, and they took a look at this and one other building over 100 years (old) and didn’t offer us renewal terms. There was some consternation on whether we would be offered renewal terms on the courthouse itself.”

Herring then came forward and explained the history of the log cabin at Mormon Ridge. She acknowledged that it needs work and said she had even explored moving it to Grimes Farm in hopes of increasing its usage and exposure. There is an individual around Albion who works on restoration of such structures, but Herring said they would likely be looking at a cost of around $150,000 with minimal outside funding sources available.

Despite those challenges, Herring reiterated that the goal is to get the cabin up to a condition where it can be insured again in the future. In response to a question from Supervisor Steve Salasek, she said the cabin was moved across the road about 20 years ago, which makes it harder to secure a historical registry designation or qualify for historic grants.

Fellow Supervisor Carol Hibbs asked if the cabin is used at all currently, and Herring said it wasn’t since a once-active historical group in Marshalltown disbanded. If a private fundraising effort is launched, Shomo pledged to contribute the first $2,500.

As the conversation returned to the courthouse, the supervisors opted against taking any formal action on potentially modifying the valuation for the time being, and Shomo didn’t feel that any urgent action was necessary.

“The likelihood that we’re gonna have a claim that exceeds what we went through for the tornado (is) highly unlikely. I just don’t want to be you (the supervisors) going back to the constituency of Marshall County, explaining highly unlikely, but we have a $5 million problem,” Shomo said.

Salasek inquired about the cost of a new build on a “conventional” courthouse in the future as opposed to another historic structure restoration.

“That will be your fight, not my fight, but you can probably build back a functional building for pennies on the dollar — for $10 or $20 or $25 million and have probably a more functional building than you have now, but this is our St. Louis Arch,” Shomo said. “If you had a total loss, I think you would contemplate whether you wanted the historicity or the functionality.”

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Contact Robert Maharry

at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.