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At Monday's Osage County Commissioners meeting, the Board had to make the decision if they wanted to move forward with constructing the courthouse annex. Before making that decision, District One Commissioner Everett Piper gave a presentation letting everybody know the financial impact of this decision.

The Board of Osage County Commissioners approved a 10.5 million dollar bond 18 months ago. Since then, some of that money has been spent, leaving a total bond principle of just over 9.9 million dollars.

Piper elaborated on just how much the county would be paying for the next 30 years.

When the Board began looking at annex designs, they were looking at drawings that were not going to fit the money that they had budgeted for. This is when Piper began finding ways to save money and he summarized what the annex would look like after making those money saving measures.

Last week, the Board opened up the bids for what it would take to construct the annex. On Monday, Piper said that number came in at just over 7.6 million dollars, leaving 1.8 million dollars for things such as additional architectural expenses, security systems and other items. Because of that, it is tough to say if they would come in under budget, but after the conclusion of the presentation here is what District Three Commissioner Charlie Cartwright had to say on the topic.

Piper made a second to Cartwright's motion and District Two Commissioner Steve Talburt voted to unanimously approve moving forward with the construction of the annex.