TIFTON — County commissioners discussed plans for renovating the courthouse and the former Tifton Gazette building during their most recent meeting.

While the Gazette building is slated to get an overhaul inside and out to help it match the aesthetics of other county buildings, it will also play a vital role in keeping the renovations and regular proceedings for the county courthouse running as smoothly as possible.

John “Mac” McCall of McCall & Associates, the architecture firm that will be handling the projects for both buildings, explained at the Oct. 14 county board of commissioners meeting that during the courthouse renovations, the Gazette building was planned to be used as a temporary replacement for the facility.

The building would provide spaces for county clerk of court offices, storage for all of the files and records normally held in the courthouse, and a courtroom.

Additional areas would be created for temporary prisoner holding, a judge’s chamber, jury assembly, and a witness room.

Once the courthouse renovations were completed, as well as the expansion, these offices would move back into the building, save for the more long-term records that were not accessed regularly.

McCall explained that a section of the Gazette building would be turned into an annex for these older records and other files used by the courthouse, while the other half would become the new office for the Board of Elections.

Additionally, the building would go through its own renovations, including a hard canopy for the front entrance, redone doors and windows, the replacement of roof sheathing, which would add six inches of insulation to the roof deck, and a re-stucco and repainting of the exterior to better match either the courthouse or Charles Kent Administration Building.