Interior design teacher makes offer
ASOTIN — Jo Ann Asher Thompson, who heads the clothing, interior design and textile program at Washington State University at Pullman, says she would like to make the Asotin County Courthouse a class design project.
The county commissioners are working on plans to expand the courthouse space into the unused portion of the annex — the old Independent Order of Odd Fellows Hall — and the adjacent Marvel Building.
The plan calls for the addition of a second courtroom on the second floor as the first project. The commissioners have budgeted $15,000 for a start on that. Thereafter, as money is available, the offices of the sheriff and the county engineer will be moved from the basement into the Marvel Building.
Commissioner Mark A. Kammers contacted Thompson earlier about the need to redesign some parts of the courthouse to provide needed space. In a letter to Kammers, she said she hopes to make a study of the courthouse and preparation of a proposed space-use design a senior-class project for the fall semester. She said she will discuss the proposal with J. Willliam Rudd, chairman of the WSU Department of Architecture.
“It sounds like it would be an exciting opportunity for our students to become involved in,” she said in the letter.
Asotin County residents twice voted in favor of proposed bond issues to finance expansion and renovation of the courthouse, but the margin each time was short of the amount needed for passage. The commissioners now propose to expand and improve the courthouse over a period of possibly 10 years and using current expense funds as they are available.
There would be no charge for the proposed WSU project.
In another matter at the weekly meeting Monday, the commissioners asked Roger Diesen, the county engineer, and Don Brigham, county planner, to review the county’s subdivision ordinance and recommend changes they believe should be made.
The commissioners also voted to close the courthouse Friday to permit county employees to attend the county fair. They also scheduled a county road inspection tour next Monday starting at 11:30 a.m.
This story was published in the April 23, 1985, edition of the Lewiston Tribune.
