Everyone agrees on this: When Washington County residents visit their government building in Stillwater to do business, they often don't know where to go.
A reconstruction of the south wing of the sprawling campus will fix that, said Erik Jalowitz, who manages the project for the county.
The remodeling of the first floor, which begins March 22, means that one of the county's largest and business-intensive services -- Property Records and Taxpayer Services -- will be able to return to the government campus after being temporarily housed at a Stillwater strip mall.
The reconstruction is part of a $59.6 million makeover of the entire 28-acre Washington County campus. Late last summer, a new courts building and three new floors atop the Law Enforcement Center (LEC) opened.
"We are on schedule, we are on budget still, so everything is going as planned, which is all you can ask for," Jalowitz said.
The "Campus 2025" expansion is intended to equip the county -- which is nearing a quarter million residents and expects 140,000 more by 2025 -- with suitable space for another two decades. It includes space for six more courtrooms to be finished later.
County buildings constructed in the 1970s and 1980s -- now somewhat outmoded and often overcrowded -- were built for growth in their time and served the county well, said Don Theisen, the county's chief engineer.
County officials have expressed concern about the current layout of the south wing, where people enter an atrium and often seem lost. A customer service window sits behind a pillar on one side of the atrium and people sometimes have trouble finding it, despite directional signs.
