Replacing an aging courthouse elevator at night to avoid disturbing court proceedings is going to cost around $100,000 more than during the day, Carbon County Commissioners learned Thursday.

Per the lowest bids opened during Thursday’s commissioners’ meeting, the work, if done between 4:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. would cost $384,284, while completing the project between 7 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. would cost $288,727.

“Our number one priority is not disrupting the courts, and the perfect scenario would have been to do this work at night,” Commissioner Rocky Ahner said. “You can’t have drilling or something going on while a witness is on the stand. It looks like we’re going to have a big decision in front of us here in the next couple of weeks.”

The bids must be reviewed by Boyle Construction and the county solicitor before awarding the work. A two-week time period will be given for review.

The elevator, which county officials said has had its share of operational failures, serves three floors and the basement in the 1894 courthouse.

“It is increasingly inoperable, thus preventing safe accessibility to all three of the county courtrooms, various row offices, and critical infrastructure space,” according to bid documents. “Additionally, replacement parts for the elevator are becoming more rare and both emergency repair and routine maintenance are increasing in frequency and cost. While in good repair, the original stairs do not meet current safety and code requirements that further exacerbates accessibility issues caused by the unreliable elevator.”

The county bid three different contracts for the project including general construction, electrical and elevator construction.

Low bids came in from Bognet Inc. for general construction, Billitier Electric for electrical and Current Elevator Technology.

The county had hoped for construction to start in the first week of October, as it plans to use $138,494.32 in State Facility Closure Grant money obtained through the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. The grant money, Ahner said, does have a deadline for use attached to it.

“If we did do the work at night, we’d have to have one or two sheriff’s deputies on duty, and that brings up another subject that we’ve been dealing with, which is lack of manpower,” Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein said. “We can come up with a cost for it, but we have adult probation and the sheriff’s office assisting at the prison and are we going to have the manpower to do this, so the big question is are we going to be able to do this?”

Greg Armstrong, Carbon County Court administrator, said his office was part of the discussion with commissioners about daytime versus nighttime for the project.

“It would be difficult for this to be done during the day while court was going on,” Armstrong said.

The project is expected to take around six weeks to complete and postponing court cases, Nothstein said, is not a viable option.

“Court is catching up and making some headway, but they were already behind the eight ball so to speak because of COVID-19,” Nothstein said. “We don’t want to set them back again just as they’re starting to make up some ground.”