Freeborn County has completed a construction schedule for the new courthouse. The project will start with building a new criminal justice center next March and finish with the demolition of the 1954 building in November 2004.

Meanwhile, some of the departments, including the sheriff’s office and city police, public health and county administration, will get new temporary homes.

The project consists of building the new criminal justice center on the south end of the courthouse complex, remodeling the current law-enforcement center building and old courthouse, and demolishing the ’54 building.

Though Adolfson & Peterson, which is managing the construction, designed a phase plan that intends to minimize the interruption of county services in the existing facility, some of the departments will still need to move around before they are finally placed in the new courthouse.

The very first phase &045; after bids, which are scheduled for early February &045; is the construction of new criminal justice center.

The sheriff’s office and the city police, on the lower level, will move into the basement of the old courthouse, which is currently used as the law library and storage space, around August of next year. The dispatch center will remain in the same place.

The public health department on the first floor will be relocated into the basement of the ’54 building, where the county administration, maintenance department and commissioners room exist, next September. The administration and maintenance departments will temporarily move to the Human Services Department building on Clark Street.

The relocation to the new criminal justice center is scheduled July 2004. After that, the existing jail will be remodeled into the county attorney and court services space, which will be complete by September in the same year. The demolition of the 1954 administrative building, on the north end of the courthouse complex, will start after that.

The county will continuously post the changes in office locations.