The former Agent Funeral Home was demolished in about four hours on Nov. 20 and the debris was hauled away during the following week.

The concrete slab at the southeast corner of Chickasaw Avenue and Elm Street was broken up and trucked off this past week, creating a barren landscape for the next step.

Almost $2.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds have been transferred to a capital outlay account to pay for what comes next.

Now comes the exciting part.

For the Sequoyah County Commissioners, it’s a vision from the past year for building a new courthouse annex.

For BWA Architects, Tulsa, a boots-on-theground firm that has done about 2,000 such jobs for municipalities and school districts, it’s helping the county realize its building dream.

But the final look of the annex is still being determined.

So when BWA principals Jay T. Boynton and Dayna Boynton attended a recent county commissioners meeting to present their “initial proposal” for the annex, they not only laid out their vision for the building, but expressed their commitment to working with the county in whatever capacity needed.

“We want to help you for the whole project, and it’s not because we want that much more fee, we think it’s a better- delivered project,” Jay Boynton told the commissioners as he detailed the possible role BWA could play. “We are very familiar with the [Public] Competitive Bidding Act and the bidding process you have to do to meet all the regulations. So we still help even if [a separate contractor] does that, if you want us to. It’s a process, but we’ve done about 2,000 of these jobs.

“During construction, [the contractor] has to manage the job onsite. Our job is to make sure you are getting what you paid for, and that it’s done to an industry standard. All we do is give you that opinion, then we approve the application for payments during construction, if you want us to,” Jay Boynton explained. “In our opinion, you’ll get the best product if we go all the way through, but it’s up to you.”

District 3 Commissioner Jim Rogers assured the Boyntons “it’s not that we don’t want to,” and then Rogers and Jay Boynton finished the sentence almost in unison, “it comes down to money.”

But Jay Boynton assured the commissioners BWA will do as much or as little as the commissioners desire.

“Basically, if we do it, you pay us for it. If we don’t do it, you don’t pay us,” Jay Boynton said. “The decision doesn’t have to be made until after we issue the drawings, and you just tell us if you want us to keep going or if you want us to stop.”

Jay Boynton, who is the chief financial officer for BWA, understands financial limitations and budget restraints.

“We’re a boots-onthe- ground firm, so we’re very committed to construction,” he told the commissioners, adding that BWA “works for all municipalities, and school districts are our No. 1, and they’re all poor.”

And after the blueprints and schematics are complete and delivered to the commissioners, should the county decide not to have BWA involved to completion, the Boyntons said they would still be available to answer questions and to address any ambiguity. “It wouldn’t be effective if we gave you the drawings and went away,” Jay Boynton said.

The nitty gritty

Dayna Boynton, a senior project architect for BWA, walked the commissioners through the suggested schematics.

“This kind of a preliminary look at how we would try to blend in with the courthouse building next door with the same color of brick, along with accent ACM (aluminum composite material) panels. We do want it to blend, but also be a little more modern,” she explained.

“We were able to bring the square footage down to the 10,684 — it’s tight,” Dayna Boynton acknowledged, and added that she and her husband will talk with each group “just to make sure you will have enough storage once we get all this created.”

She then “toured” the proposed floor plan with the commissioners, beginning by noting a feature that allows public access through the main lobby to the main meeting room as well as to restrooms in a manner that allows the remainder of the building to remain locked and secured. The meeting room is also connected to a suite of offices for the commissioners.

Dayna Boynton then highlighted office spaces for the county assessor, county clerk and county treasurer, which will all be relocated to the annex from the main courthouse.

Specifying access to the assessor and treasurer, the proposed floor plan calls for the lobby to open to customer service windows for those offices. In addition, a central meeting room or conference room is planned for shared use among the annex offices.

Since storage space at the main courthouse was at a premium and a crucial aspect of expansion plans, Dayna Boynton highlighted ample storage areas designated for each annex office.

A shared employee lounge is available for the building as well.

Another important aspect of the project is a city ordinance that mandates providing one parking space for every 300 square feet of the new building. Therefore, provisions for off-street parking along Chickasaw Avenue are planned for the front of the building, as well as additional parking on the south and west sides of the building.

“Based on this square footage, which is 10,000ish or more — 10,684 — this is the amount of parking that would be required for that building, so we are showing the appropriate amount of spaces,” Dayna Boynton assured the commissioners.

The Boyntons then presented voluminous stacks of civil engineer drawings “showing the site and the utilities;” architectural drawings “showing the plan and the wall types and the finishes;” structural drawings “showing how the building stands up;” and mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) schematics “indicating all the electrical, mechanical systems, plumbing, etc.,” Dayna Boynton said.

“For a new building to get permitted to be built by the state, they require all these engineered drawings and specs to ensure that everything’s being built to … what we’re saying, this is what it takes to create a permittable set of documents for a contractor. This is kind of showing everybody what it looks like, and this is telling everybody what every little product in the building is — what kind of concrete mix, vapor barrier, paint, joint sealant, wall base — you just have to have. everybody bidding apples to apples very specifically,” Dayna Boynton said, noting that the presentation was intended to show “the documentation that we provide to make sure your building is permittable and buildable.”

Jay Boynton then explained that, while the presentation involved reams of paper, the documents are done digitally, and PDFs are what are issued to those bidding the project.

The commissioners and department heads will examine the information submitted and then discuss further with BWA.