Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1911-07-17
The douglas County Court House.


OMAHA, July Ito the Editor of The
Bee: The new court house which is near
ing completion will be without a doubt the
finest county building between Chicago and
San Francisco. and will fill the needs Of
the county for a good many years to come.
All Of the county officials will be provided
with abundance Of office room. the offices
being on the first and second floors and
the court rooms on the third and fourth
floors there being nine court rooms In all.
The plan is to utilize the fifth floor for the
county jail. To give an idea of the size
of the building, II covers more ground than
both the Bee building the city hall to-
gether.
1t is due John Latenser the architect to
say here that the plans furnished have been
SC perfect in every detail that the board has
not found II necessary to make single
change in the plans of the building or to
pay the contractor for any extras up to
date. AS to the contractors, the work has
not progressed as rapidly as the board has
thought 1t should. but the workmanship
has been and is first class
The building being near completion, II is
necessary now to make some provisions for
furniture and fixtures for the building, as
we'll as steel cells for the Jail. This was not
provided for in the former bond issue, as II
was estimated that the building would use
up that fund and by careful management
We have kept the cost OF the building
within that amount.
A short time ago the board called a spe-
cial election for the purpose of voting 5000
900 to be divided among the following
necessary expenditures for the furnishing
OF the building and fitting up Of the
the building. The architects and our esti-
mates are as follows:
Furniture and fixtures. $4,000; a goodly
part of this expense is in fitting up nine
court rooms.
Steel cells and fittings for the jail. suff-
cient to accommodate 800 prisoners, $500;
being for male, female and juvenile prison
ers.
| Lighting fixtures. being for both electric
light and gas $4,000.
Parking and ornamenting the north half
OF the block fronting on Farnam street.
SIS 900.
| The balance. II any, can be used TO good
advantage for decorating. which IT will be
necessary to do some time and can be done
at much less expense before the building is
occupied. BY decorating. l mean painting
OF tinting. what viii be white walls, as fin
ished by the contractor.
At the special election referred to. the
bonds failed to carry, a very small vote
being cast on the question. the bond propo-
sition being defeated by only seventy-seven
votes. The board has now decided to give
the voters an opportunity 10 vote on this
question again on primary day, which is
August Is. The board believes that by hold
/ ing this election IN connection with the
primaries that II will make II more con-
venient for the voters TO cast their votes
on the question at that time and that by
holding the bond election at that time IL
will add very little expense TO what would
be made by holding the primary election
alone. I believe that when the new court
house is completed and occupied every tax
payer will take pride IN showing IL 10 his
friends from other counties whenever they
are visiting here.
To give you an idea of what II will cost
a property owner. will in closing submit
la few figures. The taxable property II
Douglas county amounts to about 500 o0O. coo
a levy OF 1 mill on the dollar on this amount
would raise the $4,000. OF IL you hav'
property worth $1,000. your share OF the ex
pense would be SO and you would be al
flowed TO pay this at the rate OF 81 pei
year for ten years. OSCAR J. PIcKARD.