Road Work (Photo Illustration/MetroCreativeConnection)

PARKERSBURG – Part of Market Street will be closed next Monday as crews will be removing and replacing air system units on top to the Judge Black Annex.

The Wood County Commission spoke with Wood County Maintenance Supervisor Todd Nonamaker about plans to replace the air system at the building that houses offices for the Wood County Prosecutor’s Office, the Wood County Sheriff’s Tax Office and the Wood County Assessor’s Office.

Nonamaker told county officials last week that no one could be in the building while the work is being done.

The plans are to bring in a crane and remove three air system units from the top of the building and to replace them with three new units.

The work is being planned and arranged to occur Monday, Nov. 11 — Veterans Day — when county employees will be off and will require closing Market Street between the Wood County Courthouse, the Judge Black Annex and the Blennerhassett Hotel as well as part of Third Street near the courthouse.

“The county is off that day (due to the holiday),” Nonamaker said. “We are going to try to pull those units off that day with the crane and set the new units into place.

“No one can occupy the building that day.”

Wood County Administrator Marty Seufer said if everything goes according to plan, there probably won’t be any heat or air in that building Nov. 12-14.

Officials said people need to dress appropriately for cool temperatures in the morning and warm in the afternoon.

Seufer believes the old units can be removed and the new ones can be put into place in one day’s time as they are roughly the same size and will “fill the same footprint.”

“It will probably be a pretty long day,” Nonamaker added.

Officials said crews will begin work Friday afternoon to disconnect the electric and gas. They hope the crane can be brought downtown before Monday and kept nearby until it can be set up Monday morning and work can begin.

Nonamaker said the crane can’t be operated until it is daylight out and they will want to be ready to start “at the crack of dawn.”

The only concern is if the placement work can’t be completed on the 11th and it carries over to the 12th. If the work carries over to the following day, employees will have to be kept out of the building.

Right now, some weather forecasts are saying rain could be possible that day.

Wood County Sheriff Rick Woodyard said they would just have to be flexible and see how things play out.

“If they have to vacate the building on that Tuesday, we will tell them the night before,” he said.

Once the units are in place, crews will spend a couple of days hooking the units up and getting them operational, Commission President Blair Couch said.

Nonamaker said they will be meeting with city officials this Wednesday to discuss closing streets.

“When the crane is set up on Market Street, it will block off both lanes and have (most) of Third Street blocked off during the duration of that lift,” he said.

Officials are planning to contact the parking authority, the Mid-Ohio Valley Transit Authority, the Wood County 911 Center and the Blennerhassett Hotel.

“That would be a good neighbor thing to do,” Nonamaker said of the hotel.

The current units have been in place since the early 2000s and after inspections and maintenance work have been deemed to be at the end of their service life, Seufer said.

The project will cost $508,325 and the county received a state Courthouse Facilities Grant for around $100,000 for the project, he said, adding the county has already paid $350,000 towards the project.

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com